Month: June 2015
News/Politics 6-19-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
Our Daily Thread 6-18-15
Good Morning!
On this day in 1621 the first duel in America took place in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.
In 1812 The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain.
In 1861 the first American fly-casting tournament was held in Utica, NY.
In 1873 Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President.
And in 1961 “Gunsmoke” was broadcast for the last time on CBS radio.
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Quote of the Day
“If you’re successful in what you do over a period of time, you’ll start approaching records, but that’s not what you’re playing for. You’re playing to challenge and be challenged.”
Lou Brock
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Today is Paul McCartney’s birthday.
And some Beatles too, but not really. 🙂
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 6-18-15
It’s Thursday, so please remember to pray for the folks in PNG.
Anyone else have something to share?
Psalm 20
¹The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;
2 Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion;
3 Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.
4 Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.
5 We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.
6 Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright.
9 Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call.
News/Politics 6-18-15
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. First here’s the official story from the Obama White House where Obama takes credit for the success of other groups……
From TheWashingtonTimes “The White House claimed credit Tuesday for a victory by Kurdish fighters over the Islamic State in northern Syria, saying the battlefield success is a direct result of military decisions by President Obama late last year.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the triumph by Syrian Kurds in the town of Tal Abyad “is actually a direct consequence of an earlier military operation that President Obama ordered” to break the siege of the Syrian city of Kobani last fall.
“Because of the president’s decision to order the air drop of significant resources and equipments and reinforcements, and because we were able to work with Turkey to allow for additional forces to enter that city, we saw that coalition … backed by coalition airstrikes, of course … drive [the Islamic State] out of Khobani,” he said. “And over the last several months, those forces have steadily driven east across northern Syria.””
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2. And then there’s the real story, which is success in spite of Obama……
From FoxNews “The Kurds are enjoying increasing success against ISIS, and not only are they doing it without the U.S. weapons they seek, they often find themselves going up against American-made equipment.
In Syria, Kurdish Peshmerga forces captured the key city of Tal Abyad from ISIS on Monday, the latest in a string of Kurdish victories over the black-clad jihadist army in Iraq and Syria. Leaders of the ethnic army told FoxNews.com recently that they could be even more effective if U.S. weapons went to them instead of the enemy, which has seized massive amounts of American weaponry from the Iraqi forces it has defeated in battle.
“What America has given to Iraq in the past, what Iraq borrowed from Russia and U.S., ISIS has,” said Peshmerga commander Kemal Kerkuki. “They are using many, many, mines, C4, TNT, snipers, mortars; they have Humvees, they have tanks, they have different kinds of weapons.”
U.S. military aid is distributed through Baghdad, which has an arm’s length relationship with the semi-autonomous Kurds in the north. Without direct aid, the Kurds have largely made do with aging equipment and weapons they seize from ISIS.”
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3. Meanwhile in the US, right-wing extremism and violence is rampant, at least according to the left and the NY Times. 🙄
From JammieWearingFools “Let’s just completely ignore the constant threat of Islamist terror and the leftwing street marauders rioting around the country. We’ve got the New York Times helpfully cherry-picking and twisting some statistics to help pretend there’s some right-wing plot to undermine America. Yes, nearly 14 years after 9/11, the “right” are still the greatest threat facing America.
The stupid, it hurts.
THIS month, the headlines were about a Muslim man in Boston who was accused of threatening police officers with a knife. Last month, two Muslims attacked an anti-Islamic conference in Garland, Tex. The month before, a Muslim man was charged with plotting to drive a truck bomb onto a military installation in Kansas. If you keep up with the news, you know that a small but steady stream of American Muslims, radicalized by overseas extremists, are engaging in violence here in the United States.
But headlines can mislead. The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim extremists, but from right-wing extremists. Just ask the police.
In a survey we conducted with the Police Executive Research Forum last year of 382 law enforcement agencies, 74 percent reported anti-government extremism as one of the top three terrorist threats in their jurisdiction; 39 percent listed extremism connected with Al Qaeda or like-minded terrorist organizations. And only 3 percent identified the threat from Muslim extremists as severe, compared with 7 percent for anti-government and other forms of extremism.”
Was it right-wingers burning Baltimore and Ferguson, trying to blow up a bridge in Cleveland, shooting up a draw the prophet gathering, bombing Boston, attacking Boston police with a knife, shooting 2 cops in NY, attacking an FBI agent yesterday, or any other episodes in recent memory? No, it wasn’t, those have all been left-wing agitators and muslims.
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4. From bad to worse.
From KHQ.com “The City of Spokane says an independent investigation into a whistleblower complaint filed against three members of the volunteer citizen Police Ombudsman Commission has found “behavioral misconduct during interactions with City employees.” City of Spokane Communications Director Brian Coddington said eight findings of misconduct in the report include chair Rachel Dolezal and commissioners Kevin Berkompas and Adrian Dominguez. The report has been forwarded to the City Council for review.
Dolezal recently resigned as President of the Spokane NAACP amid allegations from her parents that she is in fact white, and not black as she has been portraying for years.
“We are deeply disturbed by the facts contained in the report of findings from the independent investigator,” Spokane Mayor David Condon and Council President Ben Stuckart said in a joint statement. “The conduct is unacceptable and falls far short of the community’s expectations of volunteers who sit on City boards and commissions.”
The evidence and interviews conducted by the law firm Winston & Cashatt confirmed workplace harassment allegations, revealing a pattern of misconduct as well as specific incidents of harassment that might be viewed only as rude or unprofessional were it not for the ongoing pattern of harassment.
The report also states investigators uncovered additional abuses of authority, as well as violations of the Code of Ethics. The report states one or more of the Named Commissioners attempted to directly supervise the operation of the OPO, lied to investigators, failed to set aside biases toward police, engaged in unprofessional disrespectful conduct in public settings, and engaged in conduct that created a conflict of interest.At a press conference on Wednesday, Council President Ben Stuckart said after reading the findings in the report, the creation of a hostile work environment was “pretty horrific.””
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5. Hillary’s lies continue to be exposed.
From FoxNews “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used her personal email account to handle high level negotiations in 2011 for a no-fly zone to help topple Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, according to a series of emails obtained by Fox News, challenging her claim the private server did not hold classified information.
The emails, linked here, conflict with Clinton’s statement that she did not put national security at risk by using a personal account.
“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email. There is no classified material,” Clinton, now a candidate for president, told reporters in March. “I’m certainly well-aware of the classification requirements and did not send classified material.”
That claim was hard to test because emails released by the State Department are heavily blacked out. But an email chain from March 23, 2011 — with virtually no redactions — shows a message for senior administration staff including then Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, then-Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy among others. It goes point by point, explaining what Turkey, France and Britain will likely accept in the deal.
“I think the information in the email is clearly classified. If I were engaged in the negotiation on that subject reporting back to Washington, my reporting cable would be classified,” former UN Ambassador and Fox News contributor John Bolton said after reading the un-redacted emails.”
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Our Daily Thread 6-17-15
Good Morning!
Today’s photos are from Cheryl.
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On this day in 1579 Sir Francis Drake claimed San Francisco Bay for England.
In 1837 Charles Goodyear received his first patent for a process that made rubber easier to work with.
In 932 the Senate defeated the bonus bill as 10,000 veterans massed around the Capitol.
And in 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court banned the required reading of the Lord’s prayer and Bible in public schools.
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Quote of the Day
“The Church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise Him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.”
Igor Stravinsky
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Today is Igor’s birthday.
And it’s Barry’s too.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Prayer Requests 6-17-15
It’s Wednesday, so don’t forget to pray for The Gambia.
Anyone else?
Psalm 19
¹The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
News/Politics 6-17-16
What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread
1. So who is withholding documents from Congress? Was it Hillary or the State Dept.? Or both?
From TheNYTimes “Emails that a longtime confidant to Hillary Rodham Clinton recently handed over to the House committee investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, raise new questions about whether the State Department and Mrs. Clinton have complied with a series of requests from the panel.
The emails, provided by Sidney Blumenthal, a close adviser to Mrs. Clinton, include information about weapons that were circulating in Libya and about the security situation in Benghazi in the year and a half before the attacks. The committee has asked the State Department and Mrs. Clinton several times in the past year for emails from her and other department officials about “weapons located or found in” Libya and about the decision to open and maintain a diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
The emails from Mr. Blumenthal have widened a rift between the State Department and the committee. State Department officials said that they had complied only with requests and subpoenas related directly to the attacks because the committee’s demands were too broad. The department has “provided the committee with a subset of documents that matched its request and will continue to work with them going forward,” said a spokesman, Alec Gerlach.
But the panel has called that an excuse to protect Mrs. Clinton and to slow the investigation of the attacks, which occurred on Sept. 11, 2012, and resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
It is not clear whether the State Department possesses the emails between Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Blumenthal and did not hand them over. It is also possible that Mrs. Clinton never provided them to the department and deleted them off the server that housed the personal account she used exclusively when she was secretary of state.”
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2. The Pope has become the left’s new BFF. At least for now.
From TheGuardian “Pope Francis will this week call for changes in lifestyles and energy consumption to avert the “unprecedented destruction of the ecosystem” before the end of this century, according to a leaked draft of a papal encyclical. In a document released by an Italian magazine on Monday, the pontiff will warn that failure to act would have “grave consequences for all of us”.
Francis also called for a new global political authority tasked with “tackling … the reduction of pollution and the development of poor countries and regions”. His appeal echoed that of his predecessor, pope Benedict XVI, who in a 2009 encyclical proposed a kind of super-UN to deal with the world’s economic problems and injustices.
According to the lengthy draft, which was obtained and published by L’Espresso magazine, the Argentinean pope will align himself with the environmental movement and its objectives. While accepting that there may be some natural causes of global warming, the pope will also state that climate change is mostly a man-made problem.
“Humanity is called to take note of the need for changes in lifestyle and changes in methods of production and consumption to combat this warming, or at least the human causes that produce and accentuate it,” he wrote in the draft. “Numerous scientific studies indicate that the greater part of the global warming in recent decades is due to the great concentration of greenhouse gases … given off above all because of human activity.”
The pope will also single out those obstructing solutions. In an apparent reference to climate-change deniers, the draft states: “The attitudes that stand in the way of a solution, even among believers, range from negation of the problem, to indifference, to convenient resignation or blind faith in technical solutions.””
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3. This is the face of evil.
From TheDailyMail “Merciless ISIS fighters retreating from towns taken by their Kurdish enemies are planting mines in the bedrooms and bathrooms of homes to blow up returning families, it was claimed today.
The bombs, which have so far killed 12 People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, are being discovered in the Khabour region of Syria.
YPG and Syriac Military Council forces are working to liberate the villages, as well as find and defuse the explosive devices. They were planted by the terrorists after they seized the area in February and kidnapped 250 civilians.
The bombs are being hidden under beds, behind bedroom doors and even in bath tubs, as well as in crop fields in the north-eastern region of the country, which is predominantly Kurdish but also has populations of Arabs and predominantly Christian Assyrians and Armenians.
It is the terror group’s chilling new tactic aimed at wiping out minorities in Khabour.
‘Property of Islamic State’ and ‘Your land is ours now, go to hell’ are scrawled on the walls inside the homes of Assyrians who fled earlier this year.”
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4. The poor woman is just a black person trapped in a white person’s body. Welcome to the world of transracials. I know it sounds silly, but she already has enablers helping her thru this difficult process. 🙄
From NewsBusters “Transgenderism is so yesterday. Now, it’s time to “discuss” transracial issues! That, of course, according to a guest on the June 15 edition of MSNBC’s NewsNation. Tamron Hall invited Earl Hutchinson – a radio host and prominent author on racial issues – to the program to chat about the still unfolding story surrounding Rachel Dolezal, the now former head of the Spokane NAACP who lied about being black.
Hall started the conversation by asking Hutchinson if Dolezal has “identified herself as transracial,” and he responded by suggesting that she’s never had the chance to fully explain herself other than stating that she considers herself black. He added: “You know, if you consider yourself from the moon, or a Martian, I mean, if that’s what you wanna be, that’s what you want to be.”
The radio personality mentioned that – aside from the fact that Dolezal clearly lied about her race – it is important that people look at her record:
The critical question is, what did she do as president of that chapter? I took a look at it. I took a look at the record. I took a look at the minutes of some of the meetings that they had, and I got to tell you, Tamron, I was absolutely bowled over on all the key issues: education, health care, criminal justice reform, police misconduct and civil rights. I got to tell you, she was spot on and the chapter was spot on.
Hall concluded her interview by wondering if we have reached a point where discussion over transracial issues may become necessary:
[A]re we now looking at a space where I am Caitlyn, so that’s how she wants to identify herself – are we now at a transracial point? Because when blacks passed for white it was in many cases because their life was in danger. Are we at a transracial point now where someone like a Rachel is now on the forefront of something we’ve probably never discussed before?”
Ummmmm…. No.
And there’s more enablers making up justification for her actions……….
From TheHuffingtonPost “Rachel Dolezal is a fascinating case study in White racial identity development.* She is stuck in the immersion/emersion stage, in which White people, having learned extensively about the realities of racism, and the ugly history of White supremacy in the U.S., “immerse” themselves in trying to figure out how to be White in our society, and “emerge” with a new relationship to Whiteness. Only in the case of Dolezal, her way of dealing with the pain of the reality of racism, was to deny her own Whiteness and to become Black.
She is an extreme example of a common phenomenon. The “immersion” stage is typified by White people taking more responsibility for racism and privilege and often experiencing high levels of anger and embarrassment for racism and privilege, which they sometimes direct towards other Whites. They sometimes try to immerse themselves in communities of color, as Dolezal did. She’s not alone.
I definitely experienced this. There was a time in my 20s when everything I learned about the history of racism made me hate myself, my Whiteness, my ancestors… and my descendants. I remember deciding that I couldn’t have biological children because I didn’t want to propagate my privilege biologically.
If I was going to pass on my privilege, I wanted to pass it on to someone who doesn’t have racial privilege; so I planned to adopt. I disliked my Whiteness, but I disliked the Whiteness of other White people more. I felt like the way to really end racism was to feel guilty for it, and to make other White people feel guilty for it too. And then, like Dolezal, I wanted to take on Africanness. Living in South Africa during my junior year abroad, I lived with a Black family, wore my hair in head wraps, shaved my head. I didn’t want to be White, but if I had to be, I wanted to be White in a way that was different from other White people I knew. I wanted to be a special, different White person. The one and only. How very White of me…”
The stupid is strong in this one…. and so is the white guilt.
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Our Daily Thread 6-16-15
Good Morning!
Today’s pics are from Janice.
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On this day in 1487 The War of the Roses ended with the Battle of Stoke.
In 1884 the first roller coaster in America opened at Coney Island, in Brooklyn, NY.
In 1897 the U.S. government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.
And in 1963 at the age of 26 Valentina Tereshkova went into orbit aboard the Vostok 6 spacecraft for three days. She was the first female space traveler.
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Quote of the Day
“While living I want to live well.”
Geronimo
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Any day’s a good day for Jars of Clay. From RELEVANT
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Wandering Views 