America at the Crossroads on Memorial Day 2020

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/05/america_at_the_crossroad_on_memorial_day_2020_.html

America at the Crossroad on Memorial Day 2020

The past three months have been a period of extreme trial and tribulation for the people of United States.  They are struggling to regain a sense of optimism and confidence in the face of what now appears to have been an unnecessary Wuhan Virus pandemic lockdown and the resultant dictatorial and unconstitutional behavior of many state and local politicians.   

Further, the citizenry is becoming increasingly aware of the Democrat party hierarchy’s illegal and unconstitutional utilization of the power of government to spy on and potentially depose a duly elected President.   Despite this exposure, this same cabal has unabashedly and deliberately exploited and prolonged the coronavirus crisis in an attempt to fundamentally transform the nation, defeat President Trump in November, and establish a permanent ruling class oligarchy.   

Nonetheless, far too many Americans are still obsequiously deferential to those whose only interest is themselves, their ideology, and their thirst for power.  Much of the populace, by dint of a woeful education, have accepted the falsehood that their country is one of an ignoble nature and history and that “American Exceptionalism” is a myth as this nation has plundered the planet and exploited mankind.   

As a consequence, the propaganda arm of the ruling class, the mainstream media, and their unceasing fear mongering about the coronavirus as well as their unrestrained defense of the Obama cabal’s attempted unconstitutional overthrow of the Trump Presidency, has fallen on fertile ground among much of the citizenry.   

Yet, it is the overwrought response to the Wuhan Virus pandemic that has brought the nation to a crossroad.  Will the American people peacefully, but firmly, revolt against those prolonging oppression in the name of science and reclaim their freedoms, or will they meekly accept the dictates of those in power and empower the ruling class in perpetuity? 

On this Memorial Day, when the nation remembers those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the freedoms now being usurped, it is a tragedy that this nation, that has so advanced the welfare of mankind, is faced with that stark a reality. 

The true account of America’s contribution to the world and its people is one of magnificent achievement, whether freeing millions from tyranny by force of arms or dramatically improving their standard of living by fostering global economic growth as well as new and ever evolving technology.   

Perhaps the one thing above all others, that a majority in the United States do not appreciate, is the indispensable and unprecedented role this nation has played in giving hope and a real-life vision of the blessings of true freedom and liberty to countless millions throughout the world.  Nothing this country has done in its history can compare to being what Ronald Reagan referred to as “The Shining City on the Hill.”

Befitting the true intent of Memorial Day, the following true story is emblematic of the strain of honor and bravery that permeated, and hopefully still does, the American character as well as this nation’s historical commitment to freedom and liberty for all mankind.  A nation the ruling elites are hellbent on transforming into another failed socialist state subservient to China on the world stage.

A soldier, a small American flag on the shoulder of his jacket, slowly walks through the streets of a once bustling European city now lying in ruin.  The few still upright walls serve as perfect cover for an ambush or a sniper’s liar.  His senses honed to a fine razors edge to react to the slightest sound or movement, he steps carefully around the broken bricks and shattered glass.

The soldier hears a faint stirring behind him and wheeling around, rifle at the ready in anticipation of the worst, he sees, instead, a young girl perhaps five or six years of age slowly walking towards him.  Her tattered clothes barely able to cover her emaciated frame.  Their eyes meet as kindred spirits.  In the cauldron that is unconditional war, the psyche of the soldier has been dulled by the weariness of death and destruction and that of the child by the never-ending and soul-crushing struggle for survival.

He offers his hand to her, and, while wary, she senses a genuine kindness in his demeanor.  They share a chocolate bar, and though unable to communicate, there is an instant bond.  She then motions to three other younger children, one perhaps two or three years old, to join them.  They slowly and apprehensively come from the behind the shattered walls.  

Welcoming them into the group, the soldier, with a gentle smile, gives all his rations to the youngsters.  For an hour or two, the children, some for the first time in their brief lives, revel in a sense of security and companionship as they gather around the soldier.  They sit and talk to each other as best they can while the thoughts of the young man gradually turn to the memory of his childhood and parents in a small town somewhere in the heartland of America and of his high school sweetheart and their plans for a family when he returns from the War.

When the time comes for the soldier to depart, the little girl tugs on his sleeve and as a tear rolls down her cheek, she hugs him while the other children hold onto him unwilling to let go.  Doing what he must, the soldier reluctantly turns away and without hesitation returns to his duty and the bloody cauldron of war; but he leaves behind children who for the rest of their lives would cherish the memory of that day and of the young man from another country who had shown them such genuine friendship and kindness.

The following day a sniper’s bullet found its mark and the same young man so full of hopes and dreams lay dead beneath the gaunt image of a splintered and shattered oak tree silhouetted by the purple haze of the setting sun.

Yet in a street of a devastated city thousands of miles from his home the soldier had shared a fleeting moment of peace and tranquility with a new family.   Those he and his fellow Americans, on the battlefield and in the factories and farm fields of a free and vibrant land, had freed from a life of oppression and given a chance to pursue their dreams as he willingly gave up his.

The country, the United States of America, whence this soldier came, is unique in the history of mankind.  When attacked by foreign powers America never viewed those incidents as a pretext to conquer and permanently subjugate other nations.  Rather, this country, in the pursuit of self-defense, also aspired to the noble calling of freeing others from tyranny and allowing the people of those nations to establish their own freely elected governments.

The basic tenets in the founding of the United States: 1) that all men are endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, and 2) that the individual and not the state is paramount, enabled a society to evolve that fostered love and respect not only of country but of fellow man, regardless of where he might live.

It is this distinctive trait among all global communities which has motivated countless American men and women over the years to not only willingly take up arms to defend a land they cherish but to expend blood and treasure so they and others can live in peace and freedom.

American military cemeteries, with their verdant fields of seemingly endless rows of monuments marking the graves of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, dot the globe.  The sons and daughters of the United States interred there now reside in the pantheon of the most noble and heroic in the history of mankind.

American Military Cemetary Cambridge, England (Photo: US Air Force)

As the years march inexorably on, memories of the past, particularly the most unpleasant, are pushed into the recesses of daily consciousness.   In the United States, with each new generation, the knowledge and experience of war, survival and adversity is replaced with the demands of day-to-day living and an unfortunate tendency to fall prey to not only the false but fashionable proclivity of blaming America for all of mankind’s ills but the inexorable acceptance of the belief that a powerful central government is the source and arbiter of human rights and freedom.

Not only for future generations of Americans but the future of the free world, the citizenry must choose to actively rebel against those prolonging oppression and "fundamental transformation" using the coronavirus pandemic as their vehicle and re-elect President Trump in November.   

On the other hand, if the citizenry continues to place unbridled faith in politicians and their self-serving promises and succumb to the irrational influence of many societal elites and their egocentrism and not in the advancement of liberty and individual self-determination that so many over the past 244 years fought to defend, then the sacrifice of this honorable soldier, so far from home, and his fellow patriots will have been in vain.

Trump Threatens to Pull RNC Convention from North Carolina over Dem Gov's Lockdown

Article by Jeff Reynolds in "PJMedia":

On Monday morning, President Trump took to Twitter to express frustration over the continued lockdown orders in North Carolina. The Republican National Convention has scheduled the nominating convention for August in Charlotte, but Governor Roy Cooper (D) has yet to confirm that he will lift his CCP coronavirus pandemic lockdown orders in time for planning to proceed. In a series of tweets, President Trump threatened to pull the convention out of Charlotte.

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August. Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed...

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

...full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space. Plans are being..

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

...made by many thousands of enthusiastic Republicans, and others, to head to beautiful North Carolina in August. They must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied. If not, we will be reluctantly forced...

Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump

...to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site. This is not something I want to do. Thank you, and I LOVE the people of North Carolina!

 Nominating conventions are no small things to pull off. They require a space as large as an NBA or NHL arena to accommodate upwards of 15-20,000 delegates, swarms of media, and all the security required to protect the sitting president. This is a MASSIVE undertaking, which has been in the works since shortly after the 2016 convention in Cleveland ended.

President Trump has a good point here. If Governor Cooper can’t accommodate the needs of the convention, the RNC will have no choice but to find a more suitable location.

Florida in August doesn’t sound particularly appealing. Then again, it wasn’t THAT bad in Tampa in 2012, although the humidity was killer. There may not be a better alternative though. Swing state, open for business, willing to roll out the red carpet, lots of large professional sports arenas and hotel rooms. Just speculating here, but other alternatives might include Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Denver, or even Texas.

Both parties like to schedule their conventions in swing states to show off their best to swayable voters, but Texas and Florida might be the only states ready right now to accommodate such a large change of venue at the last moment. The animus held by Democratic governors toward President Trump will make blue states off-limits. The RNC has also considered some sort of virtual convention, but the logistics on that seem to lie somewhere between impossible and hellish.

Hopefully Governor Cooper realizes the no-win situation and helps carry out the convention as planned. North Carolina voters would not likely regard him favorably for continued obstinance over his lockdown orders. Playing obstructionists with a national election would be a very bad look.

https://pjmedia.com/election/jeff-reynolds/2020/05/25/trump-threatens-to-pull-rnc-convention-from-north-carolina-over-dem-govs-lockdown-n426474

The Doctrine of Media Untruth

When knowledge, wisdom, independent thought, even basic competence were no longer requisites for success, then the media naturally slid into mediocrity, and mastered networking and obsequiousness instead of valuing independence.

by Victor Davis Hanson for American Greatness

As a general rule, when the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN begin to parrot a narrative, the truth often is found in simply believing just the opposite.

Put another way, the media’s “truth” is a good guide to what is abjectly false. Perhaps we can call the lesson of this valuable service, the media’s inadvertent ability to convey truth by disguising it with transparent bias and falsehood, the “Doctrine of Media Untruth.”

Take the strange case of the respective records of liberal New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Florida counterpart Ron DeSantis. Both states have roughly equal populations, with Florida slightly larger by about 2 million. Both have populations that travel daily back and forth between their respective major cities. Both are major international tourist and travel hubs. Both have widely diverse populations.

Both have large numbers of retirees and long-term-care homes. Yet, New York has suffered 14 times the number of coronavirus deaths as has Florida. Florida is now increasingly open, and on May 19 saw 54 deaths attributed to the virus. That same day, New York was completely locked down and yet saw nearly twice that number at 105 deaths.

One would never know from the media of the contrasting fates of the two states during the epidemic.DeSantis is often rendered little more than a reckless leader who exposed Floridians to needless danger. Cuomo, in contrast, increasingly is deified by the media as likely presidential timber who finesses press conferences in the lively fashion of his legendary beloved father, and iconic liberal, Mario Cuomo.

Yet on the principle of media’s commitment to untruth, the public legitimately could deduce from the hagiographic news coverage that the frenetic Cuomo has proven the most incompetent governor in the nation in dealing with the virus. He sent the infected into vulnerable long-term care homes. He neither applied social distancing to, nor cleaned, mass transit. And Cuomo exaggerated his need for some medical supplies, while neglecting shortages in others.

In contrast, the media furor at DeSantis is a good guide to his successes in both mitigating viral fatalities while charting Florida’s path back to economic normality.

Hagiography of the Unfit and Unprofessional

The media assures us that failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is a statuesque heroic figure who is an experienced state politician, a successful polymath, and would be a valuable asset as Joe Biden’s vice-presidential pick, but even better—wink-and-nod—a likely next president.

That new media consensus narrative is best typified by a recent and obsequious promo piece in the Washington Post. So given the media deification and the Doctrine of Media Untruth, we might assume that Abrams never has held statewide office, in incoherent fashion could not concede her legitimate defeat in the last Georgia gubernatorial race, and until recently still had not paid off an enormous credit card, student, and tax debt well over $200,000.

In other words, read the media narrative on Abrams and without knowing much else, one could conclude that she is not a photogenic candidate; she is not gracious in defeat; and she is without much experience of victory. Her baggage and lack of even a statewide constituency would mostly hurt a Biden ticket, which explains why his opponents hope that she is the vice-presidential nominee.

The Doctrine of Media Untruth was a valuable guide during the serial psychodramas to abort Donald Trump’s presidency. When Yale psychiatrist Bandy X. Lee was canonized for tele-diagnosing Donald Trump as unhinged and in need of forced removal under the 25th Amendment, we knew the media glorification signaled she was unprofessional in making such a diagnosis of a patient she never met, and would never dare offer such a long-distance mental assessment of presidential candidate Joe Biden, based on his obvious cognitive impairment, memory lapses, and frequent cul-de-sac patterns of thought.

Trump’s antics simply lured the snails out of their shells and showed the public they were glorified slugs all along.

The more that CNN and MSNBC put ambulance-chasing lawyer Michael Avenatti on the air, and gushed about his tailored suits, his possible presidential gambit, his cocky take-downs of Trump, and his advocacy of supposed female victims of the predatory Brett Kavanaugh, the more we knew he was a fraud, a criminal, and likely a legal predator of his own clients. That he was sent to prison was predictable the more one heard the media gush.

Do we remember that for a while “Bob” Mueller was Washington’s hallowed prosecutor, investigator, or inquisitor par excellence? No wonder he had assembled a “dream team” of “all stars” who, as “hunter-killer” squads of legal eagles, would tear apart Trump’s supposedly doddering third-stringers and send Trump either to jail or into ignominious exile. So, the more that legal eagle narrative saturated the liberal media landscape, the more we knew the opposite was true.

Mueller himself had a spotty history. He was both physically and cognitively unable to run an effective two-year high-intensity investigation. He was the un-Durham—as leaky and hodge-podge as the latter’s probe is quiet and professional. Mueller likely outsourced his tasks to an incestuous group of partisan and progressive lawyers, many of them incompetent, with conflicts of interest and blinded by partisanship.

In the end, Team Mueller’s chief legacy was burning through more than $32 million in federal funds, hiding evidence, rigging a now-withdrawn indictment of Michael Flynn, initially hiding the amorous unprofessionalism of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok—and Mueller himself testifying before Congress that he knew little of anything about the Steele dossier and Fusion GPS, the fonts of his own investigation.

Mythology of the Weak and Pathetic 

The country once knew little of Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). But once the media sanctified his role after the 2018 election as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, we knew what lay ahead. No sooner had the Renaissance Schiff assumed the chairmanship of the committee than we were lectured ad nauseam how he was a Harvard Law graduate, with a sly sense of humor, who had he not blessed the country with his stellar political career otherwise might well have been a successful Hollywood screenwriter. He ran his committee with flair and competence lacking under the former chairman, the supposedly plodding dairy farmer Devin Nunes (R-Calif.). In other words, we quickly discovered the truth through the Doctrine of Media Untruth.

Within about a year, the public knew that Schiff was a fraud. He had suppressed key testimonies that long ago revealed that the functionaries in the collusion hoax had admitted under oath they had no evidence for the accusations they made daily in the media, and that CrowdStrike, in fact, could not prove a Russian genesis for the hacking of DNC emails.

Schiff himself tapped into the communications records of his own colleague and the former chairman of his committee, Nunes. He lied habitually, most egregiously in denying that he or his staff had anything to do with the Ukrainian “whistleblower” when in fact his team had been in close communications with him.

Each time Schiff assured the media of “bombshells,” that the “walls were closing in,” or that there were all sorts of new top-secret, classified, rarified information known only to him, which would shortly “prove” Trump “collusion,” we understood that he was a con man and prevaricator who had no proof at all or any such evidence. Whatever report he issued (cf. the “Schiff memo”), would certainly be dishonest and not factual. And, of course, it was.

Empowering of the Deceptive Expertocracy

Nowhere has the Doctrine of Media Untruth been more helpful than in following Trump during the coronavirus epidemic. The media fixated on hydroxychloroquine because Trump said it might be a game-changer and he took it himself as a prophylactic. That ensured that the ubiquitous, long-tested, mostly safe, and cheap anti-malarial, anti-lupus household drug would suddenly be declared useless and deadly.

Would the media ever repent and empirically report that in some cases hydroxychloroquine is considered to be efficacious in treating the early symptoms of the disease by front-line doctors, in line with a series of pre-COVID-19 studies that it could be helpful against SARs-like viruses?

If tomorrow Barack Obama gave a press conference, and should confess that when he travels he takes the drug, given its general safety and scattered reports it might have prophylactic value against COVID-19, we would soon read headlines of a “miracle drug” that is cheap, accessible, and vital to the world’s poor and at-risk.

When readers are told that Trump is an idiot for suggesting that the virus might end up like a bad flu year, that his advocacy for opening up the country is a death sentence, that his travel ban was too late and too porous, and that the economy has been wrecked permanently by his incompetence, then we should assume that the death tolls by autumn might approximate or slightly exceed the flu’s lethality in years like 1957-8 or 1967-8, that states that open up do not have much greater spikes in virus morbidity than do states that do not, that the travel ban saved thousands of lives and would likely not have been issued by most traditional presidents so early, and that the economy likely will begin its ascendance by autumn.

Finally, early on in the COVID-19 crisis, the media consecrated Dr. Anthony Fauci as the godlike man of science, in antithesis to the buffoonish, pre-Enlightenment fool Trump. If Fauci uttered a truism, it reverberated across the media world as gospel—but also as a sly putdown of the oblivious, oafish president. So, under the Doctrine of Media Untruth, the more the Fauci hallowing grew, the more we knew he had feet of clay.

The more Fauci was brilliant, prescient and sibyllic, the more we knew that he came late to the danger, had once declared the virus to be not much of a threat, suggested that hook-ups and cruise trips need not be too much derailed by the virus, declared that opening up locked-down states would be a terrible idea, fueled wild modeling estimates of several hundreds of thousands soon to die from the virus, doubted the efficacy of masks, and warned we should not expect an effective vaccination for years.

In other words, under the Doctrine of Media Untruth, the more Fauci was turned into a god and an anti-Trump avenging angel, the more he was human and not especially any more prescient medically than Trump was politically.

Today, the public knows that if Fauci issues a periodic warning from on high, listeners should contextualize it as a valuable data bit, collate his warning with underappreciated economic realities, consider that it might be seen as a subtle putdown of Trump, and move on—all the more so as the media blares out that Trump ignores the latest brilliant forecast from the Einsteinian viral master.

Trump Draws Them Out

The hatred of Donald Trump explains some, but not all, media bias. During the Obama years, a media cohort came of age assuming that the hip, young, educated, urban classes like itself were in permanent ascendance. It did not need to worry about listening to others, venturing beyond coastal corridors, or questioning whether it was really educated or merely branded with mostly mediocre degrees.

Being in the media was analogous to being issued a union card or belonging to the late Soviet party: one was part of an unthinking herd, mouthing platitudes, and hoping to get by and ahead that way.

When knowledge, wisdom, independent thought, even basic competence were no longer requisites for success, then the media naturally slid into mediocrity, valued youth and looks, rank partisanship, obeisance to conventions and stereotypes, and mastered networking and obsequiousness instead of valuing independence.

Trump’s antics simply lured the snails out of their shells and showed the public they were glorified slugs all along.

This phrase up until now has had quotation marks, but from this point forward appears without them. Do we want to make them all the same?

I think it should only be in the first mention.

I was thinking it was like a proper name that he is coining.  Like, “Monroe Doctrine”

Rep Biggs Discusses “Why Now” as Wray Initiates an FBI Investigation

It’s a question that has been asked several times: why is FBI Director Christopher Wray now starting an internal review of those within the FBI who were engaged with the events around Lt. General Michael Flynn.  Why did he wait so long?

In this interview Representative Andy Biggs discusses that question.  WATCH:

The most likely answer is simply sunlight.  The corrupt FBI activity was clearly evident within the organization in 2018 and 2019.  However, the recent change is the public awareness of it with documented evidence.

Keep in mind there are dozens of currently employed FBI officials, agents, analysts and administrators who participated in the effort.  As a result of USAO Jeff Jensen reviewing the activity; and in combination with DNI Ric Grenell declassifying and releasing the information to the public; FBI Director Chris Wray has no choice.

Remember, despite his involvement FBI supervising agent David Archey was promoted and now leads the Virginia field office.  Additionally, one of the key actors, FBI Agent Joe Pientka, was transferred to San Francisco.  Both Archey and Pientka are part of a much larger network of FBI officials that remain currently employed and have never been held accountable.

Agent’s Pientka and Archey were coordinating their corrupt operations with several dozen FBI officials and staff.

Lastly there’s the list of 53 witnesses that Senator Graham plans on calling:

Trisha Anderson, Brian Auten, James Baker, William Barr, Dana Boente, Jennifer Boone, John Brennan, James Clapper, Kevin Clinesmith, James Comey, Patrick Conlon, Michael Dempsey, Stuart Evans, Tashina Gauhar, Carl Ghattas, Curtis Heide, Kathleen Kavalec, David Laufman, Stephen Laycock, Jacob Lew, Loretta Lynch, Andrew McCabe, Mary McCord, Denis McDonough, Arthur McGlynn, Jonathan Moffa, Sally Moyer, Mike Neufield, Sean Newell, Victoria Nuland, Bruce Ohr, Nellie Ohr, Stephanie L. O’Sullivan, Lisa Page, Joseph Pientka, John Podesta, Samantha Power, E.W. “Bill” Priestap, Sarah Raskin, Steve Ricchetti, Susan Rice, Rod Rosenstein, Gabriel Sanz-Rexach, Nathan Sheets, Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Glenn Simpson, Steve Somma, Peter Strzok, Michael Sussman, Adam Szubin, Jonathan Winer, Christopher Wray, and Sally Yates.

Once you get on the Sunlight Express you can’t get off ’til the ride’s over.

Former AAG Matt Whitaker Discusses Flynn Case and Sketchy Judge

Former Acting AG Matt Whitaker appears on Sunday Morning Futures to discuss the latest DOJ and FBI issues surfacing as a result of the Flynn case.  Additionally Matt Whitaker gives his perspective on Judge Emmet Sullivan’s latest efforts.

Jonah Goldberg calls Kayleigh McEnany “grotesque”

Apparently the Fox News crew doesn’t like the effective approach by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany.  During the pearl clutching discussion the panelists are aghast at an administration spokesperson who articulately presents and defends the office of the president in a manner that doesn’t fit their approved norms.

Having dropped his conservative pretense behind the can of unused shaving cream in the non-mirrored bathroom cabinet, Jonah Goldberg, who has a long history of attacking strong and articulate conservative women who dare exit the kitchen, pontificates that McEnany is “grotesque” in her approach. Meanwhile Chris Wallace clutches his pearls and pretends not to know the press pool is fraught with Trump derangement resistance.

Kayleigh McEnany is really good.  She effectively shows the American electorate the ridiculous hypocrisy of the beltway media at each event, by drawing attention to their non-coverage. McEnany does a better job in her position than any before her.

McEnany is smart, articulate, joyful and christian.  This puts a unique target on her back for those in opposition desperate to retain the DC fraud, two-party pretense and cocktail party invitations.

Infected with a toxic strain of metastasized TDS, his Trump-era irrelevance now painfully transforms his physical appearance into that of Canis Lupus.  Alas, methinks the Goldberg doth howl too much.

Nation faces severe weather conditions, including storms & heat waves

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 7:34 AM PT — Monday, May 25, 2020

Extreme weather conditions struck the nation and affected millions of Americans.
Over the weekend, two people in North Carolina died after 60 mile-per-hour winds swept through the state’s capital. Both men were killed by fallen trees that were uprooted due to high winds.

The Midwest faced thunderstorm warnings from Illinois to Iowa. Multiple Chicago area counties saw up to two inches of rain in just an hour, which caused flash flooding and power outages.
Meanwhile, Texas encountered grapefruit-sized hail damaging buildings and cars in the northern part of the state. The hailstorm affected at least 50 businesses, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
 On the contrary, the nation’s southwestern region is set to heat up in the coming days with some cities under “excessive” heat watches. Desert region temperatures are even expected to top the triple digits.
https://www.oann.com/nation-faces-severe-weather-conditions-including-storms-heat-waves/

President Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Wreath Laying Ceremony

Issues Surrounding Judge Sullivan and Flynn Case

Yesterday we noted a rather important, yet less discussed, motive for the strength of the DC Circuit Court position against Judge Emmet Sullivan.  I’ll expand after the video.

In this interview Gregg Jarrett talks with Flynn’s defense lawyer Sidney Powell about the rather unusual behavior of Judge Emmet Sullivan.  WATCH:

A DC judge hiring a well connected DC lawyer to write his response to a DC circuit court appeals panel is the part that’s interesting.  There’s no guarantee the appeals court will accept such a response; but that’s also another issue.   Bottom line: Judge Sullivan is importing a lawyer to represent his interests.  Very unusual.

Our readers are smart; aware and smart enough not to get stuck in the weeds; so let’s stay elevated on this and look at the whole picture.  Consider this decision by Judge Emmet Sullivan through the prism of recent events surrounding Flynn:

♦ The DOJ, joined with the defense position and filed an unopposed motion to drop the case against Michael Flynn.

♦ A USAO from Missouri, Jeff Jensen, has discovered a trail of internal evidence pointing toward a corrupt originating prosecution for the case against Flynn.   Mr. Jensen has been revealing those documents and providing them to the court (and defense).

♦ Meanwhile DNI Ric Grenell has declassified and revealed documents showing a corrupt intent by the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) against Michael Flynn.

♦ On Friday (5/22/20) the FBI Director announced an internal investigation into officials inside the FBI for wrongful conduct specifically as it relates to a corrupt operation, now discovered and public, against Michael Flynn.

Additionally, we shall not play games and ignore the obvious.

Judge Emmet Sullivan is well aware of the reason why former Judge Rudolph “Rudy” Contreras was recused from the Flynn case; only days after accepting the first plea agreement, and less than 72 hours after the Peter Strzok and Lisa Page text messages publicly surfaced.

Lisa Page: “Rudy is on the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court]! Did you know that?” “Just appointed two months ago””..

Peter Strzok: “I did. We talked about it before and after. I need to get together with him.”…

Notice Strzok is saying he and Rudy had a talk about the judge joining the FISA court both before and after Judge Contreras was appointed.  There is a friendship connection, not just a professional relationship.  This will come into play later on.

Lisa Page and Peter Strzok even discussed the friendship between the FBI Agent and Judge Contreras being an issue that might cause a conflict of interest within the activity of Strzok as lead agent within the counterintelligence division within the FBI.

The issue was enough for Peter Strzok to say he was planning to discuss the conflict with Rudy.  Specifically Strzok was aware his work and Contreras position would likely lead to an investigation where the judge would have to recuse himself.

Agent Strzok planned to have this conversation with Rudy, and he preferred to have the discussion informally just days before Strzok official launched operation crossfire hurricane.

As the texts outline the issue of Rudy and Peter’s friendship is known to the small group in the FBI, being talked about internally, and Strzok is keenly aware he will have to approach it.  As Peter Strzok replies to Lisa Page: “M suggested a social setting with others would probably be better than a one on one meeting.”

The informal nature of a social conversation about it, with others who could corroborate if needed, would provide plausible deniability on both ends and dilute the toxicity of any issue that surfaced later on.  The conflict was enough of a concern to require a strategy.

Fast forward to the following year…

The special counsel investigation was absorbing 100% of the media’s attention.  Within DC all that anyone was talking about was the Mueller investigation and the “Trump-Russia” narrative.  The indictment of Lt. General Michael Flynn has led the news headlines for months.

There is no way a DC district court judge ; especially one that has sat on the FISA court during the time the DOJ and FBI were abusing the process; would be unaware of the investigation.  Additionally and more importantly, there is no way a DC district judge, FISA judge and good friend of Peter Strzok, would be unaware that Flynn’s prosecution was an extension of an FBI counterintelligence case against all of the Trump officials.

Holding a position of justification by saying DC district court Judge Rudolph Contreras would be unaware of the nature and circumstances of the Flynn case prior to assignment would be intellectually silly and obtuse in the extreme.   Contreras knew the case; perhaps not the granular details, but he knew the case and who was prosecuting it.

On November 30th, 2017, Mike Flynn signed a guilty plea; ostensibly admitting lying to FBI investigators.  The plea was accepted the next day by Judge Rudolph “Rudy” Contreras (who is also a FISA court judge).  Six days later, December 7, 2017, Judge Contreras “was recused” from the case without explanation.

It’s important to note that Judge Contreras did not recuse himself, he was recused by the U.S. District court for the District of Columbia. [Source]

The court made the public announcement that Judge Contreras “has been recused from handling the case.”

If the conflict -which required recusal- existed on December 7, 2017, wouldn’t that same conflict have existed days earlier on November 30th?  Of course it did.  And of course Judge Rudolph Contreras would be aware of that conflict long before engaging in the case itself.

The moment the case was assigned, Contreras knew there was a conflict for him.

Again, if the conflict existed on December 7th, the conflict certainly existed on December 1st.   So why did he accept the case?  Why did he participate in the case until the district court intervened and removed it from him?

There has been a transparent lack of media curiosity on this issue from the day the court announced his recusal.  Apparently those questions did not fit the media objective.

This context is important because the DC circuit court is now ordering district Judge Sullivan to explain his decision-making.  They are using very strong language toward Judge Sullivan and have surprised many legal experts in the way the circuit court panel has approach it.

The panel of circuit judges: Henderson, Wilkins and Rao, did not rule on the petition for the writ of mandamus; instead they “ordered” Judge Sullivan to explain himself within ten days.  The same panel “invited” the DOJ to participate:

I would suggest to you the reason for the strength in the circuit court position is entirely connected to their knowledge of the back-ground of the Flynn case which included the  recusal of Judge Contreras.  None of this, specifically the tone of the panel in their order, is disconnected from the larger background.

Whether they want to admit it or not, and they would never do so publicly, the DC court has to be keenly aware of the material behind this case.  They have to be aware of what DNI Grenell has exposed; they have to be aware the FBI is now investigating itself based on how the FBI handled the Flynn case; and this same DC circuit knows the FISA court process was abused by the exact same participants involved in this Flynn prosecution.

The media, and some DOJ and FBI defenders are playing too-cute-by-half in providing justifications for the DOJ/FBI activity.  But the bigger picture is in full sunlight.

The media ignoring it, and the legions of former DOJ and FBI employees attempting to be disingenuous about it, does not change our level of information about it; and certainly does not change the disposition of a DC court system that has watched this playing out in their back yard.

We Remember, We Honor, We Celebrate

Posted May 25, 2020 at Conservative Treehouse by Menagerie

This is a modified re-post from last year.
I love the video and I cannot top it, so I offer it again.

Today all across this great land we call America, we pause to remember those who have fallen. We give thanks for their final sacrifice, for their love of country, and we say prayers for them, for their families, for the country they serve. We fly flags to honor their service, to observe our own dedication to America. However, being the ever optimistic Americans we are, we have turned this day formerly known as Decoration Day into a nation wide party, a celebration of patriotism, family, summer’s promise, and just any old other thing we choose it to be, but in some places like our little town Memorial Day is still about the fallen servicemen and women who gave their lives for our country. 

Tracking the origins of Memorial Day proves to be a somewhat difficult task. Some attribute it to former African slaves paying tribute to fallen Union soldiers. There is strong evidence that women of the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War. On May 30, 1868, flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1890 all the northern states were observing the day. The South would not observe the same date until after World War I, when it became more than an observance recognizing those fallen in the Civil War.

So, it took another war to unite Americans in remembrance of those fallen heroes. Stubborn aren’t we? Memorial Day is specifically a day to honor our fallen who died while serving in our Armed Forces. Nevertheless, it reminds me of many trips to the cemetery as a child.

Here in the South, I grew up visiting the cemetery on birthdays, holidays, and whenever my mother felt a need to connect with those gone from her – but never forgotten. Each visit to the cemetery (my mother never let us call it a graveyard) was a fascinating experience to me as a child, and sometimes we visited, or at least drove by the National Battlefield.

We drove past it everyday on the way to my dad’s business and I always used to watch for the large flag to be at half mast. I knew then that a soldier or sailor had died, or sometimes it signified a national loss like the Apollo 1 tragedy or the loss of a president, as I remember the death of President Kennedy.

There was a protocol to the visit. Always walk around the plots, never step on one. Wander away as my mother knelt in the grass coaxed lovingly into growth in the red Georgia clay. Look first for relatives, those my mother spoke of, and those strange names I was unfamiliar with. Look for the little stone with the lamb on top – the resting place of my mother’s baby sister, Carole. Look for more lambs and little angels – they were dotted around the older section with alarming frequency, something I noticed even as a child. Take note of all the flowers.

It was a fine thing for a family to have many who remembered to honor their dead. I also very vividly remember the little American flags stuck in the ground on days such as Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Not too long ago, I found a small cemetery with a mass grave of Confederate soldiers who mostly died of an outbreak, possibly flu, during the war. Those little flags had been put in the ground around the few individual markers. I wondered if they minded that 50 star flag, or if they were grateful to be remembered, honored, prayed over.

It was something I lived with as a child, this presence of the dead. I never thought much about it until recently. Here you literally cannot stray far outside your own yard without encountering some reminder of the war fought on this soil, and those fallen. As a child, many of our parents remembered grandparents who fought in the war. It is alive for us, and so has colored how we honor our dead, those who have fallen in battle, and those who in the words of many a fire and brimstone preacher, “The LORD has called home to be with HIM.” Believe me, no disrespect intended, just an indication of a little local flavor.

And so, I find myself wondering. Is this a southern thing? Is it an American thing? Or is it something common to all of us, this need to return to the place we left our loved ones for the final time on this earth? Is it a regional custom, tied deep in the roots we are so tangled in, or a need born with our souls? I think it must be the latter, with a twist of regional observances that may vary from place to place, butsooth the heart of those who wait here, on this side. Perhaps, after all is said and done, it meets our needs more than just paying
respect to the dead. We wander there, among those peaceful plots, wondering, imagining, where are they? How is it there? When will my time come? Will I be with them again? Then, that most human of all questions. Who will honor me in my time, when I lay beneath the grass coaxed lovingly into growth in the red Georgia clay?

In Ringgold volunteers work for several weeks to place the poles and crosses you saw in the video. You can even get a list of names and locations so that families can locate the cross for their own loved one. We Remember, we honor, we celebrate. I sure hope we always will.

I hope you enjoyed the video of my former hometown. I could not have been more proud to have lived in a place like this little town. I am happy to say that the neighborhood I live in now also places crosses and flags to honor our fallen, not quite as spectacular a display as the town of Ringgold, but volunteers come together to honor those from this community who gave their lives for our freedom, and they have not been forgotten or gone unappreciated.

Biden Reelected Trump Last Friday

 
Article by David Catron in "The American Spectator":

Usually, it’s necessary to wait until after a presidential election is over before it becomes possible to identify the point at which the dynamics of the contest began to favor the eventual winner. Occasionally, however, the turning point is blindingly obvious. President Reagan’s 1984 reelection, for example, was all but assured when Walter Mondale included a promise to raise taxes in his speech accepting the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. Likewise, former Vice President Joe Biden almost certainly handed the 2020 election to President Trump last Friday when he told an African-American interviewer, “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

That blunder not only unmasked Biden’s condescending attitude toward a bloc of voters without whose support he cannot hope to win, it revealed that his campaign is worried about poll numbers they’re seeing for those very voters. A new Quinnipiac poll shows that 81 percent of African-Americans support Biden. If that seems high, remember that Clinton won 88 percent of the black vote in 2016 and lost the election. African-American turnout was also down in 2016. In other words, Biden must turn out more black voters than did Hillary and win a larger percentage of their votes.

Biden can’t win with 81 percent of a tepid African-American turnout and his campaign knows it.

This is why the candidate condescended to be interviewed by Charlamagne tha God on “The Breakfast Club.” Biden’s campaign recently rebooted his outreach to the black community and the interview was part of that effort. Charlamagne has real influence in the African American community. “The Breakfast Club” is among the most-listened-to morning radio shows in America, reaching millions of listeners every week, and Charlamagne boasts 2.1 million Twitter followers. Biden’s remark, for a lot of his listeners, reinforced the view that the Democratic Party takes the black vote for granted. Sunday morning, Charlamagne was asked on MSNBC if he believed that this was the Democratic attitude:

I know that’s the attitude. That’s why I don’t even care about the words and the lip service … It has to come to the point where we stop putting the burden on black voters to show up for Democrats and start putting the burden on Democrats to show up for black voters.… They have to worry about voter depression, people staying home on Election Day because they just aren’t enthused by the candidate.… You can’t act like this is the most important election ever but run a campaign from your basement, not make some real policy commitments to the black community, and not listen to some of the demands that the black community is making.

Friday, Biden’s campaign first attempted to clean up the mess by claiming that the remark was a joke. This was the line taken by Symone Sanders, a senior advisor to the Biden campaign who tweeted: “The comments made at the end of the Breakfast Club interview were in jest, but let’s be clear about what the VP was saying: he was making the distinction that he would put his record with the African American community up against Trump’s any day.” This balderdash quite literally fails the laugh test. President Trump’s pre-pandemic job creation initiatives and criminal justice reform have done more for blacks in three years than Joe Biden accomplished in half a century backstroking around the swamp.

After it became clear that the “just kidding” strategy wasn’t selling, Sanders simply refused to answer further questions. When NBC’s Chuck Todd, not exactly a purveyor of GOP talking points, tried to ask her a question about the issue she interrupted him thus: “Chuck, I’m not going to do this. Chuck, I’m not going to do this.” Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) was less reticent: “Joe Biden’s comments are the most arrogant and condescending thing I’ve heard in a very long time. I am offended but not surprised.” Nor was Michigan GOP Senate candidate John James who, like Senator Scott, is black. Indeed, the latter was moved to explain what really motivates the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee:

The Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted for decades, but on Friday former Vice President Joe Biden took this view to a new and very hurtful level.… Biden has shown clearly that he thinks he knows better than black people what is best for us, and that if we don’t support him we are denying our own racial identity and heritage.… Worse, I don’t see Biden’s Democratic colleagues holding him accountable for his comments. Instead, I hear silence.… Biden’s views have been exposed and stand in stark contrast to President Trump, who visited Michigan Thursday and actually listened to the needs of black people from black people.

Oddly enough, there is a certain symmetry to this. Biden wants to lead the party of slavery, Jim Crow and segregation. President Trump leads the party that ended the “peculiar institution,” granted citizenship to former slaves and recognized their right to vote. The Republicans did these things, as well as passing the 19^th Amendment, despite the frequently violent objections of the Democrats. The best kept secret in American politics is that, for these reasons, 95 percent of African-Americans voted Republican from the end of the Civil War until the 1930s. By that time, however, the GOP had come to take the black vote for granted. Sound familiar? If not, go back and read that quote from Charlamagne tha God.

https://spectator.org/biden-reelected-trump-last-friday/