PETER HITCHENS: One day it will be impossible to criticise the fanatics of Extinction Rebellion. Until then, I'll tell the truth about those irrational zealots

Just as you thought that the Left could not get crazier, they prove you wrong.

Babylon Bee: "Trump Blamed For Causing Violence In Typically Peaceful Middle East"

U.S.—After Trump moved some troops from Northern Syria, he was immediately blamed for causing violence in the typically peaceful Middle East.

Syria, which was known around the world as an idyllic paradise until January 20, 2017 at 12:00 PM EST, is now in shambles thanks to some minor troop reassignments. Trump tried to restablize the Middle East by announcing a deployment of 2,000 U.S. troops to defend the famed bastion of democracy and freedom Saudi Arabia, but it was too late. The damage had been done.

"It's sad that the usually serene resort destination of Syria has been transformed into a war-torn hellscape under Trump," said Hillary Clinton. "Under my watch, the Middle East was basically a big golf resort."...

"Trump has betrayed our allies, the Kurds," said one man in Arizona who had just googled "who are the Kurds" a few minutes before. "Look at all this violence he's causing in the usually utopian paradise of Syria."

The nation has called on Trump to allow U.S. soldiers to stick around for another few centuries in order to bring our various conflicts to a satisfactory conclusion

Isn't it amazing how much violence can result from troop withdrawal?

I'm old enough to remember Sam Donaldson; Stacy McCain's comments

Stacy McCain:

On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” former ABC “World News’ anchor Sam Donaldson accused President Donald Trump’s supporters of having a “fixation” on returning America to a “white Christian country.”
Donaldson said, “The Trump rallies are Trump’s strong supporters. I mean, ‘lock her up,’ all the things he says, all the vicious, mean things he says, they love it. There are these people in this country. They’re good Americans otherwise. They’ll probably give you the shirt off their back, they’ll help you if you need it, but they have this fixation. They want to return this country to the white Christian country that they believe it should be again. They don’t want the diversity, and they follow him for this, but they’re not the country. We are a diverse people, we are good and strong because of that, and we’re going to come back to that. I assure you.”

Let me say this: I like Sam Donaldson. He was not born to the moneyed blueblood Eastern elite. He is the son of a West Texas farmer and got his education at a second-tier state college (now UTEP) before joining the Army where he served as an artillery captain. So he is not like some of these young punks with their Ivy League degrees and arrogant sense of entitlement. What then explains Donaldson’s attitude? I blame two things: Partisanship and generational blindness.

Sam is a Texas Democrat, plain and simple. He was born and raised in an era when there was no such thing as a Republican in Texas, and in that sense resembles Dan Rather — a native of Wharton, Texas, three years older than Donaldson — and also his late ABC colleague, Cokie Roberts, the daughter of Louisiana Democrat Hale Boggs. To such people, the offspring of New Deal Democrats, and themselves old enough to recall the JFK “Camelot” era, the Democrats are and always will be the natural rulers of America. They instinctively act as cheerleaders for the Democrats the way I cheer for the Alabama Crimson Tide, expressing a sense of inherited loyalty, as it were. No fact or argument can dissuade them from this partisanship, because it is inherently irrational.

The other factor is that a rich old white guy like Donaldson cannot be made to understand what “diversity” means in practical terms for the young white person from less privileged circumstances. While his own four children are probably doing all right for themselves, it is the offspring of the white working and middle classes who are watching their communities and life prospects destroyed in the name of “diversity.”

Leftists are the Most Racist People in America

Why is it that no one ever calls out leftists on their racism? Certainly the brain-dead, corrupt, establishment Republicans don’t do so, for they so want to be liked by the progressive media that they will not say anything to offend them.

Leftists pride themselves on fighting bigotry and racism, but if you look closely you can see that such activity revolves around blacks and Hispanics (actually, some Hispanics). They are perfectly happy, on the other hand, being openly racist towards Asians, Cubans, and of course, whites.

It should be obvious to anyone who hasn’t been lobotomized by our education system that affirmative action is a blatantly racist policy. This means that Asians and whites are routinely discriminated against in college admissions. The former case is curious, because even though they are classified as a minority, Asians are still discriminated against via affirmative action. Thus, in order to be admitted to an Ivy League university, Asians need SAT scores 140 points higher than whites, 270 points higher than Hispanics, and 450 points higher than blacks.[1]When whites complain, they are sneered aside, while Asian complaints are met with silence and an attitude of wishing they would just go away, being so embarrassing. Still, for years Asians, whether from India or China or Japan or Korea, have complained of being discriminated against in admissions to Ivy League and other elite universities. Having finally had enough, a group of Asians is suing Harvard. Finally, Asians are also discriminated against when it comes to trying to obtain jobs in certain universities.

So, what’s the left’s reaction to this palpable racist discrimination? Leftists follow their usual policy of erecting a Berlin Wall of silence; after all, they dominate the media. Contrast this silence with the widespread leftist outrage regarding sportscaster Anthony Federico, who referred to Jeremey Lin, an Asian basketball player, as “the chink in the armor.” Leftist outrage, you see, is very selective. Another tactic has been to unilaterally declare Asians to be Caucasians. For instance, California’s pendejo politician, Luis Alejo, declared that Asians are not “people of color,” a rather silly view that has also been propagated by The New York Times.

Read the whole thing.

Rabbi Dov Fischer Loves Donald Trump: "The Greatness of Donald Trump"

H/T Bookworm

What makes Trump a man of historic greatness is that he wakes up every morning and continues doing his job with strength in the face of the worst character assassination imaginable, led by the Corrupt Journalist Corps. He still booms the economy. He still dares and stares down China on tariffs and trade. He still shows North Korea that he will not be hoodwinked as Bill Clinton and Obama were by promises devoid of results. He stares down the Iranian Ayatollahs and tightens the vise, despite their bombastic threats and tactical efforts to get the weak-kneed, yellow-livered, gutless and cowardly Europeans to beg Trump to lay off. He stares down those Europeans, insisting mercilessly that they cough up the money those cheap and lazy skinflints never before would pay to support NATO. So, unlike Obama and Arafat, no Nobel Prize for him. On Trump’s watch, Vladimir Putin no longer extends Russian hegemony into other countries. On his watch, Abu Mazen (Arafat’s henchman, Mahmoud Abbas) finally got cut off for allocating 7 percent of his annual budget — as much as $300 million, coming from monies sent by America and Europe — to support families of terrorists and to make convicted terrorists among the highest-income earners in “Palestine” under their “Pay to Slay” program.

Trump faces 24/7/365 lies, slander, and libel, and he just keeps going. He continues advancing novel approaches to solving the southern border mess that generations of Republicans, including Reagan, failed no less than did Democrats to address. With a porous border, deadly opioids have swamped us for years, brutal criminal animals like MS-13 have slithered in, and the most despicable of villains have smuggled in women and children for sex slavery. Yet, until Trump, no one took tough steps to secure the border. Then, faced with Obama judges in states of the federal appellate Ninth Circuit who routinely strike down his every lawful initiative, he has taken to filling not only two Supreme Court vacancies but also dozens of open federal appellate seats and even more federal district court benches with judges committed to the rule of law and the primacy of the Constitution.

This is the video that has the MSM all a-twitter

“Time to bring them home.” President Donald Trump and the Dead at Dover

EXCERPTED: Donald Trump Minnesota Rally Speech Transcript: Minneapolis, MN Rally October 10, 2019 – Rev [Edited for length — GV]

From now on, we want to fight where it is to the benefit of the United States of America, not to the benefit of other countries. And we will only fight to win. …

I sign letters, “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith from Arkansas. “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jones from Alabama. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Somebody from some great state, I’m sorry to inform you, your son has been killed in combat.”

And every letter is individually done because sometimes the parents, they’re grieving, and they get together with other parents, and I don’t want to see that it’s like the same letter…

And I sign those letters, and it just, it breaks your heart.

Today's Media Freak-Out over Trump

The Nike Commercial MAGA deserves

Where is Richard Burr

The country is being torn apart and the House of Representatives is sending out subpoenas like confetti. Meanwhile, it's obvious that there has been an incredible amount of illegal activity by holdovers from the Obama Administration who have been staging a coup against the duly elected PResident of the United States.

Where is Richard Burr on this? He is head of the Senate Intelligence Committee but he appears to be Mark Warner's puppet. Whenever you see Burr, you see Mark Warner leaning over giving him instructions, telling him what to do.

Let's check Richard's Twitter feed and see what is at the top of his agenda today:

I hope the @LittleLeague Softball World Series Champion Rowan County All-Stars enjoy their visit to The White House today! North Carolina’s proud of these awesome athletes.
#LLWS 🥎
https://t.co/YaKoUoyrBc

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) October 11, 2019

Awwww, isn't that sweet!

Tomorrow is National Public Lands Day. I hope everyone uses this day to experience the wonder of America's best idea. To celebrate, volunteer in your community or visit one of America's beautiful national parks for free.

Click here to #FindYourPark:https://t.co/BoS3ro4ao2

— Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) September 27, 2019

Just to let you know that's he's current of international affairs he wants you to know that he approves of endless overseas wars, sending troops to Syria to protect that border but not a word about protecting America's border with Mexico.

Anti-Trump Riot in Minneapolis

Left-wing rioters attacked supporters of President Donald Trump leaving a rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thursday evening — assaulting them in groups, setting fire to pro-Trump hats, and attacking the police.

Riot police stood by as members of Antifa were seen dragging steel fences away from the Target Center. . . .

Local Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer noted there were several hundred rioters, and that some were singling out Trump supporters and surrounding them in groups before attacking them. . . .

The Target Center had attempted to charge the Trump campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars for additional security. The rally itself — with a capacity crowd inside and tens of thousands outside — passed without serious incident, but local police seemed unprepared for the violence by anti-Trump rioters after the event was over.

This is Ilhan Omar country

Omar herself and her new lover (not her brother) may have been spotted at the riot.

Last Night, We Saw Fascism In the Streets

President Trump recently conducted a fabulously successful rally at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis.. The 20,000 who were lucky enough to get into the Target Center had a wonderful time; by all accounts it was one of Trump’s best rallies.

But outside the arena, things were quite different. Thousands of lawless, violent Democrats “protested” Trump’s appearance by committing assault, among other crimes. They battled police officers. They attacked Republicans leaving Target Center. They set bonfires and burned patriotic regalia. They carried the flag of the defunct Soviet Union.

They spat on peaceful Trump supporters. They assaulted an uncounted number of normal citizens leaving the Target Center. They struck a woman across the head with a piece of lumber. They waved a sign that said, “Blue Lives Don’t F@$king Matter.” The Minneapolis Chief of Police reported, “Objects containing liquid believed to be urine were hurled at some of my officers along with bottles and rocks. Police horses were also assaulted by protesters striking them with sticks.”

These leftists are identical to the Nazi Brownshirts of the 1930s. But make no mistake–they represent today’s Democratic Party. A sitting Democratic State Representative, Aisha Gomez (DFL-Minneapolis), was seen among the fascists, dressed in black like an Antifa hoodlum. And Minneapolis’s boy Mayor, Jacob Frey, who expressed regret that he could not legally prevent President Trump from visiting Minneapolis, and then tried to do it anyway, issued an order to the Minneapolis Police Department not to use chemical irritants on the mob of criminal Democrats. [UPDATE: We have a disagreement between Boy Mayor Frey and the mob: Frey denies issuing such an order, putting him at odds with fellow Democrat Gomez.] And not a single local Democrat has condemned the violence and disorder that took place last night.

We are watching a coup orchestrated by the Intelligence Agencies with their shock troops in the streets.

This week in pictures (Hat tip to Powerline)

CrowdStrike and the Impeachment Frenzy

In his telephone conversation with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, President Trump requested Ukraine’s help in getting “to the bottom of” the Russian collusion narrative and the role of CrowdStrike, a private computer security company, in propagating that story. Lost in the volcanic eruption of faux outrage and condemnation aimed at the president by the Democrats and their wholly owned media subsidiary, this reference to CrowdStrike indicates that the Justice Department’s investigation of the counterintelligence operation against candidate and president-elect Trump may be hot on the trail of exposing what could well be a seminal lie that the Democratic National Committee’s computer server was hacked by Russian operatives. To understand why, consider the following:

On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks announced that it would soon release stolen computer files that pertained to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Two days later, CrowdStrike, which was working for the DNC, announced that it had detected Russian malware on the DNC’s computer server. The next day, a self-described Romanian hacker, Guccifer 2.0, claimed he was a WikiLeaks source and had hacked the DNC’s server. He then posted online DNC computer files that contained metadata that indicated Russian involvement in the hack.

On July 22, 2016, just days before the Democratic National Convention, WikiLeaks published approximately 20,000 DNC emails.

Much to the embarrassment of Hillary Clinton, the released files showed that the DNC had secretly collaborated with her campaign to promote her candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination over that of Bernie Sanders. This caused the Clinton campaign serious political damage at the Democratic convention.

Well after the convention, Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s public relations chief, said in a March 2017 Washington Post essay that she worked assiduously during the nominating convention to “get the press to focus on … the prospect that Russia had not only hacked and stolen emails from the DNC, but that it had done so to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary.”

In their breathless coverage of the Russian hacking story, the media downplayed the very odd behavior of the DNC, the putative victim. For, when the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI learned of the hacking claim, they asked to examine the server.

But the DNC refused.

Why would the purported victim of a crime refuse to cooperate with law enforcement in solving that crime? Was it hiding something? Was it afraid the server’s contents would discredit the Russia-hacking story?

The answers to those questions began to emerge thanks to a July 2017 memorandum to President Trump by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), an organization of former CIA, FBI, National Security Agency, and military intelligence officers, technical experts, and analysts.

VIPS has a well-established record of debunking questionable intelligence assessments that have been slanted to serve political purposes. For example, in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, VIPS courageously and correctly challenged the accuracy and veracity of the CIA’s intelligence estimates that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and that he posed a threat to the United States. Similarly, VIPS has condemned the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on suspected terrorists. In short, VIPS can hardly be described as either a right-wing cabal or a group carrying water for the Republican Party.

In its analysis of the purported DNC hack, VIPS brought to bear the impressive talents of more than a dozen experienced, well-credentialed experts, including William Binney, a former NSA technical director and cofounder of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Automation Research Center; Edward Loomis, former NSA technical director for the Office of Signals Processing; and Skip Folden, a former IBM information technology manager. As the French would say, these are l’hommes sérieux, as are the other computer-system designers, program architects, and analysts with whom they investigated the Clinton-DNC hack story.

As set forth in its memorandum, VIPS’ investigative findings were nothing short of stunning.

First, VIPS concluded that the DNC data were not hacked by the Russians or anyone else accessing the server over the internet. Instead, the data were downloaded by means of a thumb drive or similar portable storage device physically attached to the DNC server....

Who Does the Whistleblower Know?

Aside from the congratulations, it seems Trump asked Zelensky for two things: an investigation into Crowdstrike, the company that performed the forensic examination of the DNC servers in lieu of the FBI, and cooperation in investigating the Biden's — pere et fil's — involvement in the suspended prosecution of Ukrainian company Burisma, which employed Hunter Biden. This is what is supposed to have been "crazy" and "frightening" and left WB2 "visibly shaken."

Now, what could have been so emotionally charged in that call? The transcript seems relatively low-key: no shouting, no screaming, and if there were any threats they were phrased very diplomatically.

It seems to me — and this is just a plausible inference, I'm not asserting it's the truth — it seems to me that the only people who would be "visibly shaken" by that would be someone who already has guilty knowledge of Crowdstrike, Burisma, or both.

Now, look at the really just astonishing irregularity of the "impeachment inquiry": not just refusing to take it to the floor of the House, but the secrecy, the selective cherry-picking of releases, and the plan to prevent Republican members — not to mention the nation — from learning anything about either WB1 or WB2.

I think the most plausible inference is that the whistleblowers are connected to Biden's campaign, or to the DNC, and were shaken by the possibility of Biden and Crowdstrike being investigated because they know there is something there to be found.

Bingo! The most reasonable explanation of why anyone would have been "visibly shaken" by the phone call are those who are afraid that efforts to uncover facts about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election and the Biden bribery would be devastating to the Democrats and Obama.

BEFORE CANDLES, IT IS RUMORED, SOCIALIST CALIFORNIA HAD ELECTRICITY

“California’s wildfire crisis will enter an unprecedented new stage Wednesday as PG&E plans to begin cutting power to about 800,000 customers, shutting down the electric lines that have sparked many of the state’s worst blazes and setting off a chaotic scramble of people preparing for an outage that could last a week in some places.”

This is their idea of ensuring no wildfires will happen? Given that some PG&E customers could be a business or residence (apartment building for example), the estimate of those affected is likely on the low side.

Schools have been canceled across the region, and major transportation routes such as the Caldecott Tunnel could be affected. PG&E had said the shut down wouldn’t happen until later on today or this evening. But guess what? The power shut down started last night.

California needs an entirely new governing class.

The Battle of Tours

After the death of the Warlord Muhammed in 632 AD the speed of the spread of Islam was extraordinary, and by 711 Islamic armies were poised to invade Spain from North Africa. Defeating the Visigothic kingdom of Spain was a prelude to increasing raids into Gaul, or modern France, and in 725 Islamic armies reached as far north as the Vosgues mountains near the modern border with Germany.

Opposing them was the Merovingian Frankish kingdom, perhaps the foremost power in western Europe. However given the seemingly unstoppable nature of the Islamic advance into the lands of the old Roman Empire further Christian defeats seemed almost inevitable.

n 731 Abd al-Rahman, a Muslim warlord north of the Pyrenees who answered to his distant Sultan in Damascus, received reinforcements from North Africa. The Muslims were preparing for a major campaign into Gaul.

The campaign commenced with an invasion of the southern kingdom of Aquitaine, and after defeating the Aquitanians in battle Abd al-Rahman’s army burned their capital of Bordeaux in June 732. The defeated Aquitanian ruler Eudes fled north to the Frankish kingdom with the remnants of his forces in order to plead for help from a fellow Christian, but old enemy: Charles Martel.

Martel’s name meant “the hammer” and he had already many successful campaigns in the name of his lord Thierry IV, mainly against other Christians such as the unfortunate Eudes, who he met somewhere near Paris. Following this meeting Martel ordered a ban, or general summons, as he prepared the Franks for war.

Once his army had gathered, he marched to the fortified city of Tours, on the border with Aquitaine, to await the Muslim advance. After three months of pillaging Aquitaine, al-Rahman obliged.

His army outnumbered that of Martel but the Frank had an solid core of experienced armoured heavy infantry who he could rely upon to withstand a Muslim cavalry charge.

With both armies unwilling to enter the bloody business of a Medieval battle but the Muslims desperate to pillage the rich cathedral outside the walls of Tours, an uneasy standoff prevailed for seven days before the battle finally began. With winter coming al-Rahman knew that he had to attack.

The battle began with thundering cavalry charges from Rahman’s army but, unusually for a Medieval battle, Martel’s excellent infantry weathered the onslaught and retained their formation. Meanwhile, Prince Eudes’ Aquitanian cavalry used superior local knowledge to outflank the Muslim armies and attack their camp from the rear.

Christian sources then claim that this caused many Muslim soldiers to panic and attempt to flee to save their loot from the campaign. This trickle became a full retreat, and the sources of both sides confirm that al-Rahman died fighting bravely whilst trying to rally his men in the fortified camp.

The battle then ceased for the night, but with much of the Muslim army still at large Martel was cautious about a possible feigned retreat to lure him out into being smashed by the Islamic cavalry. However, searching the hastily abandoned camp and surrounding area revealed that the Muslims had fled south with their loot. The Franks had won.

Despite the deaths of al-Rahman and an estimated 25,000 others at Tours, this war was not over. A second equally dangerous raid into Gaul in 735 took four years to repulse, and the reconquest of Christian territories beyond the Pyrenees would not begin until the reign of Martel’s celebrated grandson Charlemagne.

Martel would later found the famous Carolingian dynasty in Frankia, which would one day extend to most of western Europe and spread Christianity into the east.

Tours was a hugely important moment in the history of Europe, for though the battle of itself was perhaps not as seismic as some have claimed, it stemmed the tide of Islamic advance and showed the European heirs of Rome that these foreign invaders could be defeated.

THE SUNDAY NIGHT JOKE

Jeff Zucker of CNN, Dean Baquet of the New York Times, and Martin Baron of the Washington Post are all killed in a tragic accident at a gathering of leading news executives.

They find themselves standing together before shining heavenly gates and a pleasant young man at a desk greets them. “Hello, I am the senior assistant to the admissions committee, and I am here to guide you through the process. Here is your life record which will be the basis upon which you will be evaluated. Please look it over carefully.” He hands each of them an enormous bound stack of hundreds of pages.

Baron reacts angrily: “The first pages are nothing but false horrible accusations!”


Baquet and Zucker also complain that their records also open with terrible falsehoods.

The young man smiles and says, “No problem.” He takes a fresh stack of paper and an ornate feathered quill pen and writes “Retraction” in large letters on the top of each page, copies and edits each offensive item to a retraction page and then carefully adds the pages to the bottom of each man’s record and rebinds each record with an enormous heavenly stapler.

“You can go in and present your life résumés to the committee now.”

Dean Baquet objects. “But the false horrible stuff is still on the top pages. No one is going to read down to the bottom where you put the retractions.”

“Exactly,” said the assistant. “Best of luck in there.”

Stolen from Ace of Spades.

Woke Math In Seattle

This is hard to believe.  But if it's true it's the work of either someone insane or evil.