PrairiePundit

Robert Spencer: At a Toronto mosque, an imam recently prayed that Allah would kill unbelievers “and spare not one of them,” and “purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews.” An ex-Muslim named Sandra Solomon showed up at that mosque Saturday with some requests of her own: I am standing here in your mosque today, asking for you to show me the tolerance you ask of all Canadians. To accept me for whom I am and the free choices I made to be something other than Muslim. … I have concern about my life and I would love to get an answer from you Muslims to tell me: Am I going to be killed, or my child is going to be killed or harmed by anyway for me openly criticizing Islam? It was a fair question, and a poignant one coming at a time when the Canadian Parliament is considering a motion condemning an undefined “Islamophobia.” While Canada mulls officially designating Muslims as a victim class, Sandra Solomon is worried about being victimized by those supposed victims. CIJ Ne...

IBD: President George W. Bush has issued a full-throated defense of the media's role in modern society. He's being way too generous. "I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy. … Power can be very addictive," Bush said in remarks on NBC's "Today." "We need an independent media to hold people like me to account," he said. Yes, we agree wholeheartedly. But he seemed to imply today's media were fulfilling that role. They aren't. And there's no better example than Bush's own two terms in office. While we deeply admire the former president for not holding a grudge, the media spent much of Bush's eight years in office actively lying about what he was doing and what he was trying to do. It's one thing to disagree with Bush on Iraq; even some conservative media outlets loudly criticized Bush's strategy, down to the very presence of U.S. troops in Iraq. But the media consistently mischaracterized Bus...

Janes: The Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is transforming the aviation combat capabilities of the US Marine Corps (USMC), with early simulated trials showing unprecedented levels of mission success compared with legacy platforms, a senior service official noted on 28 February. Early combat exercises involving the type have shown the F-35B to be the best on the block, a senior USMC official said at the Avalon Airshow. (Lockheed Martin) Speaking at the Avalon Airshow on the outskirts of Melbourne, the deputy commandant of USMC aviation, Lieutenant General Jon 'Dog' Davis, said that combat exercises that have involved the F-35B have shown the fifth-generation platform to be superior in just about every facet of capability when compared with older types still being fielded. "I have never seen capability like the F-35B. For years in training we have been getting our butts kicked - losing half of our aircraft and missing the targets as [thos...

Washington Times: The government flagged more than 1.6 million foreign visitors for overstaying their visas from 2013 to 2015, but deportation agents said they fell too low on President Obama’s list of priorities to bother targeting for removal, according to a watchdog report released Monday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement , the deportation agency, concluded that it would cost too much to pursue the overstays, the Government Accountability Office said. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations branch instead chose to focus on illegal immigrants who jumped the border and who amassed serious criminal records — the priorities Mr. Obama laid out. Overstays pose an increasingly prominent problem in illegal immigration, with estimates saying that as the border has become more secure, migrants are attempting to enter by getting legal passes and refusing to leave when their time is up. Some estimates say more than 40 percent of illegal immigrants each year arrived legally but overs...

Washington Post: Trump spending plan that makes good on campaign vows puts GOP in a quandary The president’s proposed budget would increase defense-related spending by $54 billion and cut virtually the same amount from other federal agencies while preserving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — setting up a potential clash with Republicans in Congress who insist those entitlement programs must be overhauled to ensure the government’s fiscal health. A fight over entitlements at this point would just play into the Democrats' hand and lead to gridlock and nothing getting accomplished.  The cuts to the "administrative state" will also do more political damage to Democrats and hurt their ability to use deep state actions to thwart Trump policies.

NY Times: Russia Looks to Exploit White House ‘Turbulence,’ Analysts Say With President Trump focused on what it perceives as weakness at home, Moscow can pursue its own interests free of pressure from the United States, observers say. Liberals may have a different spin on their reasons, but it is clear that the Democrat attempts to make US ungovernable under Trump plays into Russia's plan to exploit the transition to a Trump administration.

Bill Gertz: World War II bomber pilots liked to say if you're not taking flak, you're not over the target. By any measure, Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism adviser to President Donald Trump, is in the eye of an unprecedented flak storm from liberal press outlets. The enemy fire proves he must be doing something right. "Look, these attacks are just too predictable," Gorka said in an interview. "As they say in the military, ‘you're only taking flak if you're over the target.'" For Gorka, the most revealing aspect of the many column inches devoted to the criticism is that "it's never truly about our policies or the issues that matter most." "It's always personal, always ad hominem," he said in an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "That tells you all you need to know about the other side's true weakness. They can't win on the merits of their case, so they ‘play the man, not ...

Larry Kudlow: Virtually the whole world is beating up on the Trump administration for daring to predict that low marginal tax rates, regulatory rollbacks, and the repeal of Obamacare will generate 3 to 3.5 percent economic growth in the years ahead. In a CNBC interview last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held the line on this forecast. He also argued the need for dynamic budget scoring to capture the effects of faster growth. Good for him. But what’s so interesting about all the economic-growth naysaying today is that President Obama’s first budget forecast roughly eight years ago was much rosier than Trump’s. And there was nary a peep of criticism from the mainstream-media outlets and the consensus of economists. Strategas Research Partners policy analyst Dan Clifton printed up a chart of the Obama plan that predicted real economic growth of roughly 3 percent in 2010, near 4 percent in 2011, over 4 percent in 2012, and nearly 4 percent in 2013. But it turned out tha...

Washington Examiner: President Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday scrapping a controversial Environmental Protection Agency rule that expanded the agency's jurisdiction over the nation's waterways during the second term of former President Obama. The regulation, known as the Waters of the U.S. rule, broadened the definition of the type of water body that would fall under EPA's formidable clean water enforcement powers, making everything from streams to ditches and watering holes subject to the EPA's and Army Corps of Engineers' oversight. The rule has been a top target for the GOP on Capitol Hill for more than two years, with Republicans and some Democrats opposing the regulation, which was renamed the Clean Water Rule after being made final by EPA. Trump vowed to repeal the regulation during his campaign. The executive order is meant to be a sign that he intends to keep his promises to supporters, who want to rein in the Obama administration's ove...

Susan Wright: Devin Nunes, House Intelligence Committee Chairman, is saying that to date, there has been no evidence of contact between Trump campaign aides and Russia. “We still don’t have any evidence of them talking to Russians,” Mr. Nunes said as he briefed reporters. “As of right now, the initial inquiries I’ve made to the appropriate agencies, I don’t have any evidence.” He said he’s interested in evidence, but it doesn’t appear the investigative agencies have it. This sort of pushes against what others have said. The New York Times has published articles, speaking about the repeated contact between Trump’s aides and Russian intelligence, based on intercepted phone calls. ... Mr. Nunes said he had asked for evidence on three persons that reports said were involved in the conversations, and nothing has come back. While he refused to identify or speak for the investigative agencies, he said they don’t seem to have found anything themselves. “The way it sounds like to...

Daily Caller: Al-Qaeda's second in command who was close to Osama Bin Laden is killed in US drone strike in Syria  A senior al-Qaeda leader, Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abdulrahman, is thought to have been killed by a US drone strike in Syria's Idlib province. It is one of the most dangerous positions in the world.  Before bin Laden was killed the strikes usually killed al Qaeda"s #3.  Now the drones are getting #2.

Washington Times: The Justice Department is reversing course in a long-running lawsuit over a Texas voter identification law — a significant shift under President Trump that comes four years after Obama administration lawyers joined civil rights groups in their challenge of the Texas law. The Justice Department on Monday informed attorneys for a civil rights group challenging the voter ID law that the government plans to file court papers to withdraw the DOJ’s discriminatory purpose claim. The move to dismiss its claim that the Texas law was adopted with a discriminatory purpose is not an outright withdrawal of the Justice Department from the case — the DOJ’s claim that the law had a discriminatory effect remains intact. But the distinction is significant, according to Gerry Hebert of the Campaign Legal Center, because if a judge rules that Texas lawmakers acted with discriminatory intent when they adopted the law in 2011, Texas could potentially end up back on the list of states re...

Washington Times: Trump administration officials believe that a Department of Homeland Security report that undercut the president’s position on his travel ban was drafted with the express intent of leaking it to the press, a source close to the department says. The source said the report was drafted by those loyal to the Obama administration inside the department’s office of intelligence and analysis. The drafters relied solely on open source material, which meant it could be delivered to reporters without violating federal laws on mishandling classified information. “This was not really a leak but sabotage,” the source said. “This report was commentary. This is insurrection. They all took an oath.” The leak to The Associated Press appears to follow a pattern of suspected Obama loyalists still inside the government releasing draft documents that are immediately refuted by the White House, such as a supposed plan to mobilize the National Guard to arrest illegal criminal immigrants....

NY Times: First Big Test for Mattis: Pitch Plans to Fight ISIS and Not Alienate Trump President Trump has said the U.S. should ally with Russia to combat militants in Syria, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said he doesn’t see Russia as trustworthy. I think the Pentagon is concerned about sharing US sources and tactics with a potential adversary.  It has been roughly 73 years since the US and Russia were on the same side in a war and in that one they were engaged in separate theaters of operation.  There is also probably a feeling that the Russians stand to gain more from the cooperation than the US does.

Josh Kimbrell: New polling information published in the Wall Street Journal points to a fascinating trend: Americans like much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, they just do not like him. This trend is a reversal from the last presidency in which people liked the president personally, just not his policies. If you could combine the two, where the President is personally popular as well as his agenda, you would have Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush in his first term. President Trump’s agenda is not what pushes the American people away; it is his grandiose personality. This explains why congressional candidates who have tried to run like Trump, in terms of presentation, have not fared well in their elections. Case in point: Senator Marco Rubio, who openly spatted with the President during the presidential primaries last year, carried 700,000 more votes last November in the Sunshine State than the Commander-In-Chief. They agreed on many policies, ranging from rebuilding the military ...

Susan Wright: ... Feelings are emotional or even spiritual, but they are not biological fact. To say someone has gender dysphoria is to say they don’t feel well about being born male or female, but there’s no guarantee that if you mutilate their bodies, they will suddenly feel better. Feelings tend to be deeper, not surface, so not necessarily attached to the physical. Another mental illness is schizophrenia. Schizophrenia, much like gender dysphoria, affects how a person feels, concentrates, reacts, and so forth. They may even have hallucinations. Unlike gender dysphoria, when a person is diagnosed schizophrenic, nobody tells them that they’re absolutely right – the government is poisoning their food and the checkout girl at the grocery store is spying on them. No, they are treated with medication and therapy. So why is gender dysphoria treated by catering to the sickness, rather than trying to teach these individuals to be comfortable and healthy in their bodies? Mainl...

David Goldman: A deplorable vote for Angela Merkel ... Deplorably, I would vote for Angela Merkel, and urge my American friends to support the present Christian Democratic-Social Democratic coalition rather than the alternative: a “Red-Red-Green” coalition (Social Democrats plus the successor to the old East German Communist Party plus the Green Party. If Merkel loses Germany will be ruled by Russian stooges. That’s the opposite of what some of Donald Trump’s closest supporters think. Most of them agree with British gadfly Nigel Farage, who told Germany’s national radio yesterday: Well, I wouldn't vote for Angela Merkel, that's the first piece of advice I'd give. I mean, look at the catastrophic errors she made: opening up the doors to so-called refugees, it turned out that 70 percent of them were young males, economic migrants. And because she's given up border controls, the most wanted man in Europe if not the world is able to catch a train to France, and the...

streiff: Doth John Brennan Protest Too Much About The Leaking Of Classified Information In This Interview? ... ... Most of the articles that have contained classified material have been attributed to “former officials.” That, right there, tells you Representative Nunes is right. This stuff is being put out by Obama staff who were just leaving and still had contacts in the various agencies or by Obama staffers who had been held over for a short time, for instance, the Obama political appointee who claimed he was career CIA and couldn’t stomach working for the Trump administration. And we know Ben Rhodes boasted of forming a resistance. We know The Atlantic has covered this campaign of leaks . ... ... We know for a fact that Brennan is shading the truth here because he used his former deputy chief of staff to release a press statement blasting Trump over his speech at CIA headquarters. So even though he hasn’t personally talked to the press since January 21, if we believe him and ...

Washington Examiner: A Republican lawmaker wants to take lawsuits out of the arsenal of environmentalists who use the Clean Water Act to stop infrastructure projects, introducing a bill that could have major implications across the country. Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina introduced the Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuit Act this month in an attempt to stop environmental activists from holding up infrastructure projects by filing lawsuits challenging permits. The bill would require the side that loses to pay for all costs, including the winning side's legal and court fees. It also would remove the Environmental Protection Agency's "veto power" over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for wetland permitting. Environmental activists say the bill targets one of the most useful tactics to block controversial projects. Not allowing citizens to sue the government over permits for projects that could affect them limits due process, one activist said. ... "Right now, re...

Daily Caller: France’s attempts to deradicalize jihadis have been a complete failure, a parliamentary report reveals. The country moved to open 12 deradicalization facilities last fall where jihadis could go through a year-long personalized program. The centers, along with a number of other measures, have now been deemed a “total fiasco.” “It’s a total fiasco. Everything requires a total rethink,” conservative senator Philippe Bas said Thursday. “Everything must be started from scratch.” The facilities were meant to help individuals who are “looking for a way out” by offering group activities and workshops on religion and the French Republic. The only center currently up and running costs more than $2.6 million per year without having a single tenant. (RELATED: France Launches Rehab Facility For Jihadis) ... It takes more than therapy to cure Islamic religious bigotry.  It is a faith-based problem and the bigotry has been ingrained since their early development.  In s...

The Hill: A majority of Americans believe news organizations are too critical of President Trump, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday. Fifty-one percent of Americans said the media is too critical of Trump, while 41 percent think news organizations have been fair and objective. The poll also found that Americans are becoming more optimistic about where the country is headed, with 40 percent saying it is headed in the right direction. In December, 33 percent felt that way, compared to 18 percent in July. ... Trump has a tendency to talk without a script.  That sometimes lead him to say things in a way that the media pounces own and sends the fact checkers into a frenzy.  Rather than attacking they should be asking for clarification.  Many of the things the media challenges him on appear to be a difference of opinion more than an attempt to deceive.

Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic: Buffet & Gates on Why American Is Already Great It is probably pretty easy for billionaires to come to that conclusion.  It is not so great for the working class Americans struggling to survive who wound up voting for Trump.   I get the impression that Soros does not think America is great that is why he tends to support groups trying to tear down the American culture.

Kyle Smith: Meet the terrorist behind the next women’s march One was a convicted terrorist who lied on her application for US citizenship.  Another bought the weapons used in a courtroom attack that killed a judge.  Another appears to be a Maoist.  Why would women want to be associated with these people?

Washington Post: Robust grass-roots movement supplies key component in fight to save Obamacare The new mobilization represents a stark reversal of the recent political dynamics around health care. This is a far cry from the organic operations of the Tea Party.  These choreographed demonstrations are being planned and run by Democrats who worked on Hillary's campaign and they also appear to have ties to Soros.  They use mass-produced signs and scatter themselves at town hall meeting to try to make it look like they are a larger group than they really are. It is ironic that they are working so hard to save a program that is primarily responsible for making Democrats a minority party.

NY Times: ‘Affordable Underground Furniture’: D.I.Y. Coffin Clubs Catch On in New Zealand Coffin-building clubs have gained popularity among older New Zealanders looking beyond traditional social activities. I do a lot of woodworking building mostly custom furniture and occasional some cabinets.  This is not on my "to do" list at his point.

Independent-Sentinel: Reporter James Rosen Says Nothing Trump Did Comes Close to What Obama Did to Press Obama's administration spied on Rosen and his parents after he ran a story on North Korea.  The media still fawned over Obama and asked him softball questions.  You can see some of the unctuous questions in a video that is part of this story at the link above.

Daily Caller: Basic reporting errors by Reuters and NPR resulted in journalists falsely reporting that President Trump attended a foreign diplomat’s party at Trump’s D.C. hotel in what was portrayed as a possible pay-to-play scenario. NPR and Reuters both reported that Kuwait’s ambassador to the U.S., Salem al-Sabah, was throwing a gala in honor of his country’s independence day at the Trump International Hotel. Reuters definitively placed the event as happening on Saturday, while NPR’s coverage implied the same. According to Reuters, the event was expected to cost between $40,000 and $60,000. When Trump was spotted at the hotel on Saturday, a number of prominent journalists on Twitter spread the allegation that Trump was appearing at al-Sabah’s party after the ambassador gave Trump tens of thousands of dollars in business. There’s just one problem — the party took place on Wednesday, not Saturday, hotel staff confirmed to The Daily Caller. But by the time the facts came to light, ...

Washington Post: The remarkable inconsistency of Trump’s attacks on the media Are unidentified intelligence sources fabricated by journalists, or are they real people who need to be stopped? Both of the president's claims cannot be true. Trump knows the leakers are real, but by challenging the media on their sources he puts pressure on them and their sources to reveal who is responsible for the leaks.  It is a pretty clever strategy and by drawing attention to the inconsistency he raises questions in the mind of voters about the honesty of the media.

NY Times: Democrats Elect Ex-Labor Secretary as Chairman In a vote that showed the Democratic Party has yet to heal the wounds of last year’s presidential primary, former Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez beat Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota to become D.N.C. chairman. Perez was a Labor Secretary who was not effective in stopping Obama from screwing organized labor on projects like Keystone XL and Dakota Access and other projects hated by Big Green.  Trump can thank him for the working class votes he helped drive his way. When it comes to identity politics, Ellison was a twofer.  Being a Muslim and a black wasn't quite enough to push him over the top.  Ellison did have some baggage for past positions. I suspect either one of these two would wind up helping Republicans appeal to conservatives and working class voters.

Liz Crokin: Since President Donald Trump has been sworn in on Jan. 20, authorities have arrested an unprecedented number of sexual predators involved in child sex trafficking rings in the United States. This should be one of the biggest stories in the national news. Instead, the mainstream media has barely, if at all, covered any of these mass pedophile arrests. This begs the question – why? As a strong advocate for sex crime victims, I’ve been closely following the pedophile arrests since Trump took office. There have been a staggering 1,500-plus arrests in one short month; compare that to less than 400 sex trafficking-related arrests in 2014 according to the FBI . It’s been clear to me for awhile that Trump would make human trafficking a top priority. On October 8, 2012, Trump tweeted: "Got to do something about these missing children grabbed by the perverts. Too many incidents – fast trial, death penalty." My suspicions were confirmed on Feb. 23 when Trump gave a press c...

Washington Post: Trump’s jabs at Mexico are stirring nationalism south of the border, too When Mexicans hear the U.S. president boasting that he will make Mexico pay for the wall — and the wild cheering in response — they recognize an unmistakable attempt to humiliate them. It is American nationalism at Mexico’s expense, and it stings in a deep way. Mexico has been largely a failed state for years before Trump came along.  It has been exporting its people to the US because it has failed to grow its own economy to feed them.  It is not reacting well to the potential loss of the export of people that send money back to those who remain in Mexico. The US problem is bigger than that with Mexico though.  The Mexicans have been facilitating the immigration from other countries into the US in a cross border invasion that is costing the US billions in taking care of these barely literate exports. You can tell how much it costs by their visceral reaction to the possibility ...

NY Times: Meet the Anti-Trump Activist Who Is Taking On Retailers Putting together a list of companies selling Trump products has transformed Shannon Coulter’s life, and not always for the better. What if a hardware store in your community said Republican business is not wanted?  In New York City it probably would not make a lot of difference, but in Brenham, Texas they would lose most of their business.   But the store in Brenham would also lose some business it would otherwise get if it said that Democrat customers are not wanted. Those stores catering to the disappointment of Democrats following their loss to Trump voters are making the same mistake.  They are telling 61 million Americans they do not want their business.  It hard to imagine anything more counterproductive.  Hollywood actors and some athletes are making the same mistake and they are likely to pay for it in reduced ticket sales.

NY Times: H.R. McMaster Breaks With Administration on Views of Islam The new national security adviser told his staff that the label “radical Islamic terrorism” was not helpful, repudiating language used by the president. I think McMaster is wrong about this.  It assumes that Muslims are simpletons who will become mass murderers for Allah if you tell the truth about a strain within Islam that is seeking Islamic supremacy through the mass killings of those who disagree with them. This is a genocidal strain within Islam that needs to be exposed for what it is, and most Muslims appear to be able to comprehend the difference.  I guess I must have a higher opinion of their cognitive abilities than some in the Pentagon. I would also classify the terrorists as Islamic religious bigots.  I have used this term in communicating with Muslims and they seem to comprehend its meaning since nonradical Muslims are also a target of the bigots too.

Scout Warrior: All 20 Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers have been outfitted with a new flight management control processor designed to modernize the aircraft’s computer system, improve its weapons integration and enable it to rapidly embrace software upgrades, service officials said. The new processor increases the performance of the avionics and on-board computer systems by about 1,000-times, Air Force officials said. ... Faster, more capable processors will enable the aircraft’s avionics, radar, sensors and communications technologies to better identify and attack enemy targets. The sensor-to-shooter time will be greatly reduced, allowing the B-2 to launch weapons much more effectively, therefore reducing its exposure to enemy attacks. ... There is more. Additional upgrades are also in the works to enhance the ability to fully use the new processor.

Paul Bedard: They're wealthy and they are among the biggest age groups to fill movie theaters, but many seniors have had it with Hollywood's political hate speech and they are threatening a boycott if the Oscars, as expected, turn into a Trump bashing affair Sunday. Taking aim at the star-studded event and host Jimmy Kimmel, a group that represents conservative seniors, which dubs itself the alternative to AARP, on Thursday issued the warning with 12 examples of the hate spewed by stars expected to walk the red carpet. — Oscar nominee Michael Shannon said Trump supporters should die: "It's time for the urn." — Director Judd Apatow said he felt like he had been "raped" by Trump. — Oscar nominee Michelle Williams said about Trump's election, "It was a very hard day to be a mother." If more of those comments are heard at the Oscars, then members of the Association of Mature American Citizens will boycott theaters. "More than...

Daily Caller: California Bans Students From Traveling To ‘Anti-LGBT’ States They apparently oppose students being exposed to those with a different point of view from that dictated by liberals.

Breitbart: The New York Times this week continued its month-long campaign against designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization amid reports the Trump administration is debating the possibility of issuing an executive order making such a designation. Declaring the Brotherhood a terrorist organization would add the U.S. to the growing list of nations to do so, including Muslim countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Times’ crusade culminated in the newspaper’s publication on Wednesday of an oped written from Egyptian prison by Gehad el-Haddad, the official spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood. The oped was splashed on the cover of Thursday’s international edition of the newspaper. In the piece, Haddad whitewashed the Brotherhood as inspired by an “understanding of Islam that emphasizes the values of social justice, equality and the rule of law.” “We remain committed to our ideals of community development, social justice and nonviolence,” wrote Haddad....

Chicago Sun-Times: Psychiatrists and other doctors in Chicago and across the country have been caught helping immigrants gain U.S. citizenship by providing fake medical opinions, records show. An estimated 1,000 people a year submit a form to immigration officials in Chicago alone to waive the requirements that someone seeking citizenship must understand English and pass a test in U.S. history and civics. The obscure Form N-648 requires a doctor to list any physical or mental ailment that would prevent a patient from meeting the language requirements of citizenship. The form is susceptible to fraud, though. Immigration officials aren’t supposed to investigate the ailments. They’re instructed only to make sure that the forms are completed correctly and that the information in an applicant’s file is consistent. Corrupt doctors have taken cash to fill out the forms for able-bodied immigrants, who then avoid having to take proficiency tests in English and U.S. history and civics....

Red States: ... The problems are fourfold. First, the more this continues, the more elected officials will avoid the mayhem and simply cease holding town hall meetings or face-to-face ones with constituents. They will communicate via robocalls or mailings and returned form letters. This is exactly what our Founders did NOT want to happen. Second, the constant shouting, screaming and harassment will wear thin after awhile. Just as protests in the streets become old news, so shall these manufactured fits of rage at town hall meetings. Third, there may be legitimate gripes among some constituents, but the legitimacy fades away amid the optics of people shouting down elected officials, refusing to give up microphones, following people to their cars shouting or standing outside private residences protesting. They are not protesting anything in particular; they are protesting anything and everything. They become protesters for the sake of protesting. And fourth and finally, the...

Daily Caller: The Great Exacerbation: Trump’s Pipeline Politics Will Cripple the Democratic Party ... The Democrats cannot compete nationally without workers’ votes. And yet, Democrats have been squeezing workers out of their coalition. This is because the political demand of the working class for more jobs and higher wages has been ignored by a political party increasingly defined by identity politics and environmentalism. ... The Democratic Party’s reliably reflexive outrage at everything Trump says, does, and stands for compels its members to take very public, very visible stances. Because identity politics and environmentalism sacrifice workers’ immediate and very concrete economic interests to the most en vogue abstractions of the day’s progressivism, Trump repeatedly and deliberately baits Democrats on progressive issues, compelling Democrats to stake out public positions that are tacit gut-punches to workers. Trump’s real coup is that Democrats take themselves to be ri...

Bizpac Review: American College of Pediatrics reaches decision: Transgenderism of children is child abuse ... 1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of health – not genetic markers of a disorder. ... There is much more. They should be treated for their psychological disorder and not pandered to in public schools.

Forbes: Welcome to California. It is a state of a perfect set of laws – at least in the minds of those wedded to the legislative pursuit of social justice. Under the one-party Democrat rules, spending on fairness tops $100 billion every year. Meanwhile, the basic infrastructure of the state, so necessary for the economy long and short term, is collapsing. The California legislature has been busy making the news these days. They are determined to fight President Trump tooth and nail – and they are putting the taxpayers’ money where the legislature’s mouth is. California Democrat after Democrat has decried President Trump. The day after the election, a “Joint Statement from California Legislative Leaders on Result of Presidential Election,” issued in part by California Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León (formerly Kevin Leon), stated: “While Donald Trump may have won the presidency, he hasn’t changed our values. America is greater than any one man or party. We will not ...

NY Times: Trump’s Attacks on ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Put Police in a Bind Local law enforcement officials are facing increasing legal and political risks as Mr. Trump ratchets up the pressure to force them to work more closely with federal immigration authorities. There is no substantive evidence that refusal to turn illegal aliens over to ICE makes a city safer, and there is evidence that it makes a city less safe when murderers and rapist are turned loose rather than turned over for deportation. Recent polling has shown that 80 percent in the US oppose sanctuary cities .  In Texas and some other states, those communities will lose state funding.  There is also consideration being given to criminal penalties against law enforcement that refuses to cooperate with ICE. Some have even suggested that officials who refuse to honor an ICE detainer could be charged as an accessory if the illegal alien felon commits another crime.  San Francisco and N...

NY Times: The Big Question for the U.S. Economy: How Much Room Is There to Grow? The nation is close to what economists believe is full productive capacity. The Trump administration’s ambitious growth targets depend on how much slack remains. Liberals tend to see the economy as a pie to be cut , rather than a garden to be grown.  The tech world is largely a refutation of this concept.  It has created thousands of jobs through innovation and producing products and services that people want.  The limits on this growth are usually imposed by governments that wish to capture some of the growth for redistributing.

Erick Erickson: Obama, Hitler, and Trump Liberals are the original fascists.

streiff: Governor Threatens To Sue Feds Over Pipeline Protest Ecological Disaster While Obama probably bears some responsibility for the mess, the state's real targets should be the liberal groups who supported this fiasco.  Suing them for damages would not only have the potential of repaying the state but at the same time partially defunding the protest movement.

Maimi Herald: How a Colombian murder led a Miami law firm to Mexican narco-cash in Texas ... They got a hit when Regions Bank identified a “blocked account” under the name of Prodira Casa SA de CV, a currency-exchange company. That money was tied to a 2012 case where ICE officials had seized $2 million in drug cash from an armored car company in Pharr, Texas. Caballero’s team was able to establish that Prodira was a “straw man” for the notorious Mexican cartel, Los Zetas, and that the Zetas were a key part of the network that allowed Colombian guerrillas and drug traffickers to move narcotics into the United States. In short, Prodira was shown to be “an agent” of Colombia’s FARC, Zumpano said. ... The judgment in the original case stemmed from the kidnapping, torture, and murder by FARC of a Colombian land owner whose was executed despite the payment of a ransom.  The case demonstrates how the tentacles of the narco-terrorists reached through Mexico and ...

Arthur Herman: ... There are three steps this administration can take, starting this week. 1) China’s installation of SAM sites is clearly the final step toward declaring an Aircraft Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, which allows a country to monitor and control foreign aircraft entering airspace it considers part of its national territory. China has already declared such an airspace in the East China Sea, which neither we nor Japan recognize. We should state publicly that we will not recognize a Chinese ADIZ in the South China Sea either, and that we and other countries will feel free to conduct overflights in the Spratlys and South China Sea as we normally do. If China then wants to play chicken with U.S. air assets, including military aircraft, operating in an illegitimate ADIZ, that will very quickly become their problem, not ours. 2) We should summon an international conference of states bordering on the South China Sea, including the five other claimants to the territo...

Fuel Fix: Houston-based Noble Energy and its partners approved the $3.75 billion Leviathan natural gas project offshore of Israel on Thursday. The long-delayed project was debated in the Israeli Supreme Court before finally being authorized by the government last year. Proponents like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touted the development as progress toward Israeli energy independence, while critics contended it gave too much of the profit to corporations. Lead operator Noble Energy said the Leviathan field, which was discovered seven years ago, contains at least 22 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. Noble Chairman and Chief Executive David Stover said the authorization marks its third major natural gas development offshore of Israel for a total of 40 trillion cubic feet of gas. “We can continue to grow our Eastern Mediterranean business for decades,” Stover said. “This includes material additional development beyond phase one at Leviathan.” The $3.75...

Washington Times: More than 300 scientists have urged President Trump to withdraw from the U.N.’s climate change agency, warning that its push to curtail carbon dioxide threatens to exacerbate poverty without improving the environment. In a Thursday letter to the president, MIT professor emeritus Richard Lindzen called on the United States and other nations to “change course on an outdated international agreement that targets minor greenhouse gases,” starting with carbon dioxide. “Since 2009, the US and other governments have undertaken actions with respect to global climate that are not scientifically justified and that already have, and will continue to cause serious social and economic harm — with no environmental benefits,” said Mr. Lindzen , a prominent atmospheric physicist. Signers of the attached petition include the U.S. and international atmospheric scientists, meteorologists, physicists, professors and others taking issue with the United Nations Framework Convention on Cl...

Washington Post: Trump’s withdrawal of transgender bathroom guidance leaves questions up to schools, states Until this week, the federal government had provided a standard for how sensitive questions that schools face with transgender students should be resolved. But the shift leaves a patchwork of policies that varies widely across the country. The democrats under Obama have been trying to normalize deviancy and in the case of transgender folks, they are trying to normalize a mental disorder. Basing identity on feelings makes no sense when you look beyond sex.  Can those people who were caught trying to pass as black just say they identify as black?  Can an old short guy identify as a 23-year-old NBA player?  You can see the absurdity.  While I would not stop someone from acting on their transgender "feelings"  that does not mean they have a right to go in the opposite sex's locker room, and make other people feel like there is an inv...

Fox News: This foam stops bullets cold and pulverizes them to dust While this story indicates the foam would be used in personal protection gear, I see no reason why it could not be incorporated into vehicles to protect occupants.  It could result in a relatively light weight vehicle.

NY Times: Bowing to Base, Democrats Opt for All-Out War With Trump After the election, a weakened Democratic Party debated whether to confront President Trump or try to coax him to the center with offers of compromise. Now, spurred by an incensed army of liberals, Democrats have all but cast aside any notion of conciliation with the White House This looks like a windfall for the GOP.  Democrats are going to try to appease a tiny group of the radical left, leaving the middle and conservatives for Republicans.  They got their brief majority by moving to the center and then promptly lost it by following Obama over a cliff with Obamacare and other liberal schemes. The primary reason the Democrats are a minority party is Obamacare and they are still bitterly clinging to it and send kooks out to harass GOP town hall meetings.  Is Soros a secret Republican for funding this nonsense?

NY Times: F.B.I. Interviews Tell of Cleric’s Role in Plot to Bomb Plane After a two-year legal battle, The Times obtained documents that reveal how Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Qaeda leader, recruited and advised a Nigerian man who tried taking down a plane with explosives in his underwear. What this story makes clear to me is that Awlaki was a legitimate target in the war against al-Qaeda and radical Islam.  The fact that he was an American citizen is of no moment to me when the guy was clearly a traitor.  I think his story does make the case for Sen. Cruz's legislation that would strip US citizenship from those who join the enemy.  I don't get why anyone would oppose that policy.

Fuel Fix: The United States is on track to become a net exporter of gas next year, driven largely by the growth of liquefied natural gas exports, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The U.S. started exporting LNG last year, courtesy of Houston-based Cheniere Energy, and the country is increasingly piping more natural gas to Mexico while, simultaneously, importing less gas via pipeline from Canada. The U.S. was still an overall net importer last year. The nation is projected to become a net exporter of total energy products shortly after 2020, the Energy Department said, which was a virtually unheard of proposition just a decade ago. Cheniere’s first LNG export facility at Louisiana’s Sabine Pass near the Texas border came online a year ago. Houston-based Freeport LNG Development’s export terminal is slated to start shipping LNG in 2018. Three other LNG export projects will be completed or under construction by 2021, including Cheniere’s other facility near Corpus Christi. ...

UPI: A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday indicted more than 200 people arrested during the presidential inauguration on felony rioting charges, spotlighting their intent to sabotage peaceful protests with violence and destruction. Called out for individual acts of vandalism, violence and destruction, prosecutors alleged Tuesday that 214 protesters engaged in "black bloc" tactics on Jan. 20 during President Donald Trump's swearing-in, causing damage to vehicles and property. Six police officers were also hurt during the riots as they exchanged flash-bang explosives with protesters hurling rocks and firecrackers at them. ... "Black bloc" protest tactics, which have been used by some protesters for decades, include dressing in black or dark colored clothing while concealing one's face using scarves, masks and sunglasses. Some of the protesters brought with them hammers, crowbars, bricks, rocks, flares and firecrackers. ... This sounds s...

Katie Pavlich: Trump Administration Strips Funding For Illegal Aliens, Reallocates Money to Victims of Their Crimes This is a major change from the Obama administration which largely tried to avoid dealing with illegal alien crime.  As much as the left would like to demonize the families of the victim that is not a good look for them.

Erick Erickson: Leftwing Salon Tries and Fails to Claim Christian “Extremists” Are As Deadly as Islamic Extremists Salon is running a story that claims to show “far-right” extremism in the United States is as bad as Islamic extremism. The story, however, was originally going to be about “Christian extremism,” instead of far-right extremism. How do I know? It’s in the URL. ... The story is further skewed by leaving out the 9-11 attacks.  The left seems paranoid about Christians for some reason.  Perhaps because the Christians largely reject the left's agenda.