PrairiePundit

Daily Mail: Russian hacker accused of running vast cybercrime network feared he would be tortured or killed if extradited to the US Russian hacker Peter Levashov was arrested in Spain on a U.S. warrant. In court this week, he claimed he used to work for Vladimir Putin and feared he would be killed if extradited to the U.S. I do not think the US has the death penalty for hackers.  Perhaps he fears what Putin may do to him if he talks to US officials.

This picture tells how dishonest she has been in her criticism: MSNBC is not conservative supporter of President Trump.  So why is the media taking the side of this ungrateful politician?  This woman has also been accused of supporting FALN terrorists. Hat tip to Gateway Pundit. Meanwhile, Military Times  reports: US troops deliver food, supplies to devastated Puerto Rico during round-the-clock operations ... The operations include search-and-rescue efforts, distribution of supplies and bringing power back up at hospitals, airports, ports and other facilities. ... Bloomberg also refutes the charges of the mayor and her supporters in the mainstream media: No, Trump Didn't Botch the Puerto Rico Crisis ... TH: So, it seems like everybody has blasted Trump administration's response to the Puerto Rico crisis. Has that criticism been fair? JH: No, I don’t think so. First of all, there was a fair amount of anticipatory action that is not being recognized. ...

Washington Post: GOP insurgency plans for a civil war in next year’s midterm elections Populist rage simmers among the conservative base as President Trump struggles to enact his priorities. Stoked by former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and his incendiary media platform, Breitbart News, a new wave of anti-establishment activists and contenders is emerging to plot a political insurrection that is with Donald Trump in spirit but entirely out of his — or anyone’s — control. It has become clear that Republicans that voted against the repeal of Obamacare lied to voters to get elected and then stabbed them in the back with the votes to save it.  Liberals in the media praised them for saving the awful aspects of Obamacare, mainly because they hate Trump and Republicans in general.   The rebellion is against these squishes. It seems clear that John McCain would not have won the GOP primary in his last race if he had been honest about how he would vote o...

NY Times: Does the Kurdish Independence Dream Have a Chance? Iraq’s Kurds voted overwhelmingly for an independent state, but their territory lacks democratic institutions, and their troubled economy is dependent on hostile neighbors. I keep wondering when we will ever see stories about the Turkish, Iranian, and Iraqi occupation of Kurdish land.  Unlike the Palestinians, the Kurds have a thousands of years history in this land.  It is also somewhat strange to see a story about a lack of Democrat institutions when the opponents don't have much of one either, and the Kurds just voted by more than 90 percent for independence. It should also be noted that the Kurds were more effective than any of the main three opponents in fighting the ISIS genocidal threat to the region.  Unlike the Palestinians, the Kurds are not squatters in a country with thousands of years of history like Israel. Does their dream of independence have a chance?  Th...

LA Times: From his golf resort, Trump aims some sharp tweets at a mayor in Puerto Rico They do this only to Republican Presidents.  They did it to the point that President George W. Bush quite playing.  They never did it to Obama, and Trump is unlikely to take their attacks as a bad lie. They defended Obama's golf outings during various crisis's.  If they ever wander why they have lost credibility, this is one reason.

The War Zone: US Army Buys Israeli Trophy System So Its Tanks Can Blast Incoming Projectiles The service has an "urgent" plan to install Israel's Trophy active protection system on at least some of its tanks.   It looks like an effective system against enemy attacks on armored vehicles making them more effective in the battle space.

Washington Post: How Trump’s time at his golf club hurt the response to Maria As storm-ravaged Puerto Rico struggled for food, water and electricity, President Trump and his top aides said virtually nothing about it for four days while he fixated on public feuds with North Korea’s leader, Republicans in Congress and the NFL. “We’ve invaded small countries faster than we’ve been helping American citizens in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands,” one lawmaker said. With several stories criticizing Trump and the response to Puerto Rico's problems, there is not one story on the front page of the Post about volunteer efforts by Puerto Rico to deal with the problem.  A mayor is whining about the problem but is not showing any leadership beyond that according to reports.  She sounds more like Ray Nagin than Sylvester Turner who guided Houston's response to the flooding.   Why isn't this mayor organizing volunteer efforts?  Who knows?  The docks o...

NY Times: Wealthy Benefit Most in G.O.P. Tax Plan, Report Says The first detailed assessment of the tax plan found that the average tax bill would fall by $1,600, or 2.1 percent, in 2018. But the biggest drop would go to those with incomes above $730,000. Let's ignore the fact that those making more than $730,000 pay a greater percentage of the income tax than the average taxpayer.  They are also more likely to use the savings to create jobs either through direct investments or buying stuff.  Never forget all the jobs that were killed by the Democrat luxury taxes on yachts and other items.  It just about destroyed the yacht building industry in New England and many lost jobs as a result.  It has to be one of the dumbest taxes of all time and it was caused by the Democrat obsession with sticking to the rich.  They aimed at the rich and instead shot the small businesses and their employees who provide goods and services to the rich. If the rich ...

Real Clear Defense: ... Away from Bangkok’s glitz, Thailand hides its success combating insurgency. Between 1965 and today, the Kingdom of Thailand defeated two insurgencies and continues to suppress another in the south. These insurgencies are serious. Support from China and Thailand’s neighbors enabled the first, a communist insurgency during the Cold War. It leapt from 126 annual deaths in 1967 to 1,590 in 1970 . As the communist insurgency concluded in the early 1980s, Thai officials assert that 80,000 fighters and family members accepted government amnesty and reintegrated into Thai society. The government next faced the first Pattani insurgency from 1980 to 1998, ultimately reducing it to criminal mischief. But it would later be reignited, creating a third insurgency for the government to contend with, and conflict has raged since 2004. This latest insurgency, though, is different from the two the government managed to bring to an end. Improvised explosive devices strike civ...

The Economist: Clueless on Cuba’s economy The communist regime can no longer rely on the generosity of its allies. It has no idea what to do Like most liberals, communist despots never take responsibility for the messes they make and see them as "bad luck."

Reuters: A man accused of killing a woman in a shooting rampage at a Tennessee church this week might have acted to avenge the murders of nine black people in a South Carolina church two years ago, the Washington Post reported on Friday. A note in the car of Emanuel Kidega Samson, 25, indicated a possible plot spurred by the fatal 2015 shootings at Emanuel AME church, a historic African-American house of worship in Charleston, the newspaper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the investigation. Samson, who police say was wearing a mask, is accused of killing a woman in the parking lot of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ in Nashville on Sunday. He shot and wounded six worshipers in the building, before shooting himself in a scuffle with an usher, police have said. ... Samson, who is black, was taken to jail after being treated at a hospital, police said, and was charged with criminal homicide. Photos of events at the Nashville church posted on its Facebook page show peop...

Mediate: When Colin Kaepernick‘s national anthem protests began during the 2016 pre-season, he affirmed to reporters at the time that he refused to stand because he did not want to honor the flag of the United States of America. It was August 26, 2016 and Kaepernick’s San Francisco 49ers were playing the Green Bay Packers in a preseason contest. Kaepernick, recently relegated to bench-warmer status for the team he had once led to the Super Bowl, chose to stay seated on that bench while the rest of his team and everyone else at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA rose to their feet in a sign of unity for our country. (Yes, there was a time when simply standing was the “sign of unity” we showed during the national anthem, no linking of arms needed.) ... Kaepernick is the “Rosa Parks” of the NFL anthem protests so his original motivation, at the very moment that the movement began, is critical. His words are clear. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that...

Times: Isis savagery horrifies Taliban fighters in Tora Bora Osama bin Laden’s cave hideout has become the setting for an unlikely alliance There is little honor among terrorists when Islamic religious bigots collide.

~David Burge: "It was a surprisingly short journey from Robert E Lee to Dr Seuss" More evidence that Trump has caused some on the left to lose their mind. Or as John Leonard said: Liberal librarian tries to insult Melania Trump but looks foolish instead Especially after the same librarian was seen wearing a "Cat in the Hat" costume for Halloween.

Fox News: Cops using sneakers to spot MS-13 members, gang leader says Evidently, they favor blue Nikes.  But do they think the cops are looking at their feet to spot them? I do get the feeling the Trump administrations focus on rounding them up has got their attention.

Todd Wood: I know of no white person alive today in the United States who has ever legally owned a black slave, or any slave for that matter. Almost 700,000 mostly white men died 160 years ago to end slavery. Jim Crow ended generations ago. Yet black America, for the most part, is still locked in inner-city gang violence and economic hardship. Why? Is it because America is racist? Is it because of some overhanging white supremacy? Is it because of the Illuminati? No, unfortunately, it is because of black culture and the adoption of Democratic Party government dependency. We have just had eight years of the first black president. Black athletes, and entertainers, routinely earn multi-million dollar incomes. I can easily name several black billionaires without even trying too hard. A large percentage of black America is very successful. But, it is not enough. Too many black youth are being left behind. And it is no one but black America’s fault. No one can solve this problem but ...

Washington Post: ‘It’s not a good-news story’: San Juan mayor slams administration comments on hurricane response “This is a life-or-death story,” Carmen Yulín Cruz said after the Homeland Security secretary reported that relief efforts to Puerto Rico are “proceeding very well.” The territory has struggled without electricity, drinking water and medical supplies since Sept. 20, when Maria stormed through. This may be unfair, but it sounds like liberal whining rather than leadership.  The docks of Puerto Rico are chocked full of relief supplies and boats are waiting in line to offload more but there appears to be few local people pitching in the help with the distribution.  If this person is the mayor, where is her organization of employees and volunteers?  That is what Sylvester Turner did in Houston.  During hurricane Harvey, the longest lines in Houston were for volunteers to help with those in the shelters.  There were volunteers pulling peop...

Washington Times: ... “They tell me that my gender, my existence, is inappropriate,” Ms. Bressack said, according to thefamuanonline.com, which identified her as a K-12 transgender teacher. “I had people look me in the eye and tell me that I am selfish for being a teacher, selfish for putting myself into a position where I am around children and exposing them to the transgender lifestyle, whatever that is. I will not be spending my entire life pretending to be someone that I am not.” ... The story is about this teacher using made up pronouns that confuse students, but I thought this was more interesting.  There are a considerable number of medical and psychiatric professionals who believe that transgender people are indeed pretending to be something they are not.

USNI: In 2011, then-Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced an initiative called the Great Green Fleet. Although wrapped in the mantle of warfighting, it was never really about the Navy. Instead, it was about pursuing a national energy agenda and using military money to create a biofuel industry. The Great Green Fleet became part of a broader set of initiatives designed to put the Navy on the front lines of the fight against climate change. Although superficially plausible at the time when fuel prices were high, the Green Fleet is inappropriate, even counterproductive, at a time of booming U.S. energy production and Navy budget shortfalls. It is time to take a critical look at these energy initiatives, terminate those that do not directly help the Navy, subject others to cost-benefit analysis, but also look broadly at places where additional energy investments might help the Navy. The Great Green Fleet was the most egregious element of the former secretary’s energy initiatives. B...

Legal Insurrection: Survey: NFL Brand severely damaged by “take a knee” protests ... NFL’s Brand Favorability Drops To Lowest Point Since Morning Consult Started Tracking: The NFL’s net favorability has dropped from 30% on September 21 to 17% on September 28. ... The weak-kneed reaction to the take a knee protest has done more damage to the NFL than anything in recent memory.  I think their major problem is that the management of the league in New York is run by liberals who are blind to how offensive this protest is to their fan base.  The same league office that refused to let the Cowboys honor six policemen killed by a black power advocate has cratered to a questionable assertion that blacks are under assault by police.  The FBI statistics and teh Obama DOJ find no support for this argument.

NY Times: Trump Could Save More Than $1 Billion Under His New Tax Plan Mr. Trump and his family would benefit from his proposed repeal of the estate tax and a reduction in other tax rates. I suspect the big "gain" would to Trump heirs.  Estate taxes tend to destroy family business and waste the money on the greedy government. They are a product of government greed, that destroys real jobs and greater potential economic growth.

NY Times: As Puerto Rico Struggles, ‘Where Is the Cavalry?’ Residents in Puerto Rico say they are lacking basic supplies, but the White House insisted that its response has been adequate. I have seen pictures showing shipping containers on the docks in Puerto Rico.  Ships are also lined up to offload supplies.  I think the problem in distribution comes from a lack of big rigs to get the supplies from the docks to the people.  This could be because trucks were also damaged in the storm and some of the roads are still impassable.   The military may need to bring in some trucks for the distribution effort.  Military trucks are rugged enough to deal with the poor roads.

NY Times: Lobbyists Rally to Save Breaks Under Threat in New Tax Plan The Republican plan to rewrite the tax code has set off a scramble among lobbyists and trade groups to protect valuable provisions. Critics warned that removing incentives could hurt the housing market, raise borrowing costs and increase the burden on families in high-tax states. Why shouldn't those who live in high tax states pay their fair share of the federal income tax?   Why should they get increased deductions from federal taxes just because they overspend and overtax on a state and local basis? What they are doing is asking smarter run red states to subsidize blue state policies that are killing jobs and driving people out of state causing a downward economic spiral.  A fairer distribution of taxes would give those states an incentive to stop their nonsensical liberal policies.  Why should taxpayers in other states subsidize states with restrictive housing policies that driv...

Washington Times: NFL risks billions in publicly funded stadiums as millionaire players stage kneeling protests Taxpayer costs are always controversial, but issue has been elevated by demonstrations It is going to be much harder to sell the public on financing stadiums where players openly insult taxpayers and call them racists. What is happening is that fans are no longer cowed by bogus claims of racial grievances.

streiff: Today, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch is the headliner at a meeting of the Federalist Society. This should not be big news. Supreme Court justices of all ideological stripes have given the keynote speech a Federalist Society meetings. Justice Elena Kagan, who was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2010, spoke at a Federalist Society event in 2005 and during her remarks reportedly said, “I love the Federalist Society.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama in 2009, addressed a meeting of the Federalist Society that year. Justices Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg have all addressed Federalist Society meetings, as have Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and John Roberts. This year it is a scandal, or so I’m told, because the Federalist Society chose Trump International Hotel as its venue. This, via the improbably named ThinkProgress.... ... This is nonsense. If it is ethically permissible for Gorsuch to speak before the Fed...

Fuel Fix: The offshore oil industry's top cop says the inspectors that oversee drilling in the Gulf of Mexico are overly focused on what he described as minor infractions that needlessly hold up production. Scott Angelle, director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said in an interview Thursday, he was concerned that over policing was creating a contentious environment in which the bureau and the oil companies it oversees were spending too much time sending paperwork back and forth and not enough time focused on preventing oil spills and blowouts. "If BSEE is saying you're not doing this right and that right, they got to shut us up, just like Delta airlines has to shut up the FAA," Angelle said. "If you're inspecting around some things... but they're for little bitty things and we're not focused on the big things, or we're not even inspecting for those big things, isn't that a misalignment?" The comments come as Pres...

BBC: China to shut down North Korean companies They are to be closed by January.  China appears to be keeping its commitment On the UN sanctions.

PJ Media: ... The anti-Trumpers' promising story-line -- "Trump and Russia colluded on Facebook" -- had to be downgraded to merely "Russia sought to create incivility and chaos" when it was discovered that the Russia-linked group in question promoted issues and groups on both sides of the political spectrum. According to Facebook's investigators, the company sold up to $150,000 worth of ads to a Russian government-affiliated troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, which bought the ads through hundreds of phony Facebook pages and accounts. ... At least one of the over 3,000 Russia-bought ads, which Facebook will soon turn over to Congress, promoted Black Lives Matter and specifically targeted audiences in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore, CNN reported on Wednesday. The Black Lives Matter ad appeared on Facebook at some point in late 2015 or early 2016, the sources said. The sources said it appears the ad was meant to appear both as suppor...

Washington Post: ISIS releases recorded message purportedly from its leader who had been reported dead The recording, which has yet to be verified, involved references to recent geopolitical developments, including U.S. tensions with North Korea, in an apparent attempt to dismiss persistent reports that Abu Bakr al-Baghdad had been killed. A voice, if not from the grave, from deep within a bunker underground in a shrinking caliphate.  You know a movement is in trouble when its leader has to produce a "proof of life" recording.

LA Times: One night last year at an army barracks in Tehran, a tormented young conscript rousted his sergeant from bed and marched him outside at gunpoint. The private made his superior writhe in the dirt for an hour, mimicking the exercises he had been forced to do for two months after he was drafted. The private would soon disappear; soldiers later heard he was imprisoned for three years. Ahmad, a 25-year-old draftee who had just reported to the base, recalled that incident this summer after a series of deadly shootings by conscripts focused national attention on the struggles faced by those completing Iran’s mandatory military service. “I sympathize with the shooters,” said Ahmad, who like several recruits interviewed for this story requested that his last name be withheld because he could be punished for speaking out. “Something or someone must have been torturing them so deeply. That’s why they did what they did.” In July, a 23-year-old draftee holed up in his room at a ...

Kurt Schlichter: ... ... So the base went with Roy Moore, who is super-colorful in a potentially Todd Akin kind of way, because Roy Moore constitutes a giant middle finger to the crowd that failed to summon up the cajones to repeal Obamacare yet found endless investigations of RUSSIA! TREASON! OK, IT’S JUST SOME ADS ON FACEBOOK BUT WE’RE STILL GOING WITH TREASON! and amnesty for middle-aged Dreamers muy simpatico . You almost feel sorry for Mitch because he’s dealing with sanctimonious crones like Susan Collins and liars like John McCain, but then you realize that the only way he manifests his frustration at their slimy duplicity is with that pursed-lip tortoise frown of his. Do the RINOs face any consequences for defying him? Does Mitch ever play hardball with them? Who’s afraid of him? No one. They laugh at him, and he chooses to do nothing. Okay, that’s fine. If he won’t lay down the iron discipline on his apostates, we’ll just burn the heretics ourselves. Luther Strange wou...

Washington Post: These Libyan ex-militiamen were once linked to al-Qaeda. Now they wield power in a new order. Abdulhakim Belhadj and other leaders of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group are helping reshape the war-torn North African country. It does not appear to be reshaped for the better.  It has become a base for a human trafficking organization facilitating African illegal immigration into Europe.  By topping the government and not having troops on teh ground to secure the armories, Obama and Clinton facilitated the arming of Islamic terrorist all across the region. What is worse from a strategic sense is by toppling the Libyan government after it gave up its nuclear and WMD programs, made it impossible to get North Korea to give up its programs. The country has also become a base for ISIS. The Obama-Clinton policy in Libya has been a strategic disaster of the first order.

NY Times: Twitter Seen as Key Engine in Russian Influence Campaign Twitter may have been used even more extensively than Facebook as a tool for Russian interference. Congress has invited both social media sites, as well as Google, to a hearing, a Senate aide said. Whoever was responsible for the material on Twitter during the election made it unreadable in my opinion.  I got so disgusted with it that I just tuned it out and did not go back to Twitter until after the election when the tone reverted back to its past as a tool for finding stories on other sites that might be blogworthy.   Facebook during the election was not nearly as bad.  I occasionally saw some of the ads but did not find them in any way persuasive. I should point out that I was not a Trump supporter during the primaries and struggled with my decision in the general election but it was never to the point of voting for Hillary Clinton.  I ultimately cast my vote for Trum...

Washington Times: 78 Obama appointees ‘burrowed’ into career jobs, watchdog finds ... Congressional Republicans warned Mr. Obama last year against moving political appointees into career positions, and President Trump has stated frequently that he believes some employees in the federal workforce are Obama holdovers working against his agenda. The practice of political appointees “burrowing” into career jobs is permissible when laws and regulations governing career appointments are followed. Administrations prior to the Obama administration also have converted dozens of political appointees into career government jobs. Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said he requested the GAO report in part “to make sure executive branch employees knew they were being watched for improper burrowing.” “Still, GAO determined that one out of every five attempts to move a political appointee into a career position was rejected as improper,” Mr. Thune said. “Watchdogs need to stay vigila...

Fuel Fix: Exxon adds 22,000 acres in Permian Basin The company has sent 19 drilling rigs to the area.  This announcement comes only a day after Chevron announced it was investing $4 billion in oil recovery in the Permian Basin.

NY Post: Television networks uncharacteristically showed the national anthem before NFL games this weekend, but at least one staffer says that coverage may have come with certain restrictions. A “behind-the-scenes staffer” told the Sporting News camera operators were told to avoid crowd shots during the anthem, because of any fans potentially booing or protesting the NFL players’ protest. There were reports from several stadiums of fans booing when players decided to kneel for the anthem, joining a protest of racial inequality started by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Jennifer Sabatelle of CBS told the Sporting News the network’s crews were under no such orders. “The anthem was covered by each crew in their own way, with many choosing to stay with what was happening on the field,” Sabatelle said. “There was no directive given to not show the fans.” ... The Sporting News pointed out there were few camera shots of fans during the anthem, focusing instead on the play...

Washington Free Beacon: Senior congressional leaders are renewing their focus on an investigation into efforts by the Obama administration to obtain highly classified intelligence information on Trump administration allies in what many allege was an effort to undermine the president and his national security team, according to conversations with multiple senior U.S officials familiar with the situation. The recent admission by Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she requested the unmasking of Trump associates named in highly classified intelligence community reports has placed renewed attention on an investigation into why this information was obtained and then leaked to the press. In addition to Rice, former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and other senior Obama officials made hundreds of similar unmasking requests in what many allege was a campaign to handicap the incoming Trump administration's national security agenda, according to mult...

Daily Mail: 'Nobody in their right mind' would run against Peyton Manning in a Senate race says retiring lawmaker whose seat the football legend could run for  Sen. Bob Corker said Wednesday that if Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Peyton Manning decides to run for his seat, 'nobody in their right mind would consider running against him.' Manning has donated to Republican races in the past and spoken at GOP events. He has a smooth personality that would probably lend itself to being a politician. Update:   Manning says he is interested in politics but not in being a politician so he does not intend to run.

Daily Mail: Illegal immigration costs taxpayers $135BILLION a year: Soaring population, free medical care and more policing leads to highest ever bill for undocumented foreigners Illegal immigration is costing taxpayers a whopping $135billion a year according to a new report. Democrats love having people dependent on government spending especially if they see them as undocumented Democrats.

Newsweek: Jared Kushner Is a Woman, According to Voter Registration Records If Kushner was a traitor who published US secrets the media would be singing his praises rather than suggesting he has done something untoward.

Washington Post: GOP proposes deep tax cuts but provides few details on how to pay for them What is really different about tax cuts is that they usually pay for themselves in increased productivity and a growing economy.  With the feds not sucking so much money out of the economy the private sector can grow businesses and increase jobs and wages.

NY Times: 92% of Kurds Back Independence; Iraq May Send Troops Airlines based in Egypt and Lebanon suspended flights to and from the autonomous Kurdish region, following a similar move by Iran. The Kurds, like the Israelis, have an ancestral claim to the real estate they occupy.  One of the European screw-ups after the defeat of the Turkish empire in World War I was to draw lines in teh sand that put the Kurds in artificial countries.  It has been a cause of constant friction ever since.  The Kurds have been a big help in the defeat of ISIS and they deserve their independence. Their claim to their own state makes more sense than that of the Palestinians who occupied Israel's ancestral homeland.

Washington Post: When NFL players protest racism, some critics see only ‘millionaire athletes’ who should be silent Many people have the false idea that money is a savior, capable of protecting those who have it from all of life's uglier challenges. Normally the media is the last place to feel sorry for millionaires, but that is not the point of the upset with the protest.   The players are free to protest all they want to on their own time and in their own space. But just as you would not want to be hectored by a waiter at a restaurant about his political views or at a hardware store or a grocery store, when they are on the field, that in most cases taxpayers paid a good part of the costs of and they disrespect the national anthem, they are out of place and should be told that.  Most responsible owners would fire employees who chased off customers whether they are millionaires or not. I can guarantee you, that if the hardware salesman started lecturing me about ...

NY Times: Alabama Republicans Bet on Roy Moore, a Familiar Rebel, for Senate Roy S. Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, was repeatedly cast aside, even by his fellow Republicans, as a bigot and a hatemonger. Now he may win Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. Moore's opinion does not make him a bigot or hatemonger.  It makes him a lawyer with a different opinion about a court ruling.  It should be noted that the dissenters on the Supreme Court felt there was no constitutional basis for the ruling too. This is just another example of how liberals in the media attack those who disagree with them on an issue as racists, sexists, bigots, and homophobe.  They have become the most intolerant people in America when it comes to people who disagree with them.

Washington Times: President Trump , in just eight months in office, has succeeded in upending U.S. refugee policy, cutting by more than half the 110,000-refugee target that the Obama administration had bequeathed him and dramatically shifting the demographics of who is accepted. Gone is President Obama’s overwhelming focus on Muslims, and particularly on Syrians fleeing a civil war that his administration facilitated. Under Mr. Trump , the rate of Syrian refugees has been cut by more than 80 percent, and Christians have overtaken Muslims in total refugees resettled. “It’s impossible to escape the clear message that there’s a new sheriff in town,” said Matthew O'Brien , research director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for stricter refugee controls. ... As of Tuesday afternoon, with four days left in the fiscal year, the government had admitted slightly more than 53,000 refugees — less than half of Mr. Obama’s goal but slightly more than M...

Fox News: House Republicans renew call for 2nd special counsel, amid fresh Comey concerns They are focused on Comey's "investigation" of Hillary Clinton's email abuse.  I think they actually also need one to investigate the leakers in the FBI and the intel community.  They are the key to the Obama administrations abuse of teh FISA court to spy on domestic political opponents.

Reuters: Oil major Chevron Corp will next year invest around $4 billion to ramp up its crude production in the Permian Basin area of the United States, a company executive said on Monday. Ryan Krogmeier, Chevron’s vice president of crude supply and trading, told the S&P Global Platts APPEC conference in Singapore that the company would increase its output from the Permian Basin, largely situated in Texas and New Mexico, to over 400,000 barrels per day over the next few years. ... Chevron was one of the first majors to see the potential in the Permian fracking fields.  Previously it had invested more heavily in offshore production mainly in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dennis Prager: Because the left dominates the news media, the entertainment media and academia, Americans are swimming -- actually, drowning -- in an ocean of lies. Here are a few examples: America is racist. America oppresses its minorities. America oppresses women. Universities have a culture of rape. There are more than two genders. All cultures are morally and culturally equal. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were caused, or made more intense, by global warming. Israel is the villain in the Middle East conflict. Western civilization is a euphemism for "white supremacy." The latest lie of the left is that, with regard to the conflict between the NFL and President Donald Trump, the president is the "divisive" party. Whenever people on the left tell one of these lies, I always wonder if they really believe it. I have concluded that they nearly always do. Which is more frightening than if they knew they weren't telling the truth. With people...

PJ Media: It was clear this weekend that the talking points had gone out to the media: President Trump's response to both Hurricane Irma earlier this month and Hurricane Maria last week was as disastrous as Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina. ... In an interview with PBS Newshour this evening , Rosselló thanked the Trump administration for their prompt response: JOHN YANG: Governor, are you getting all the aid you need or getting it fast enough from the states? GOV. RICARDO ROSSELLO: First of all, we are very grateful for the administration. They have responded quickly. The president has been very attentive to the situation, personally calling me several times. FEMA and the FEMA director have been here in Puerto Rico twice. As a matter of fact, they were here with us today, making sure that all the resources in FEMA were working in conjunction with the central government. We have been working together. We have been getting results. The magnitude of this catastro...

Clarice Feldman: As more and more leaks about the ongoing “Russian collusion” witch hunt by Robert Mueller appear in print, it seems to me that if Russia had been trying to erode our faith in our institutions, the Deep State is accomplishing what Russia failed to do. The Obama claque’s efforts were initially intended to help Clinton when they thought she would win and no one would know about their crimes. Then they continued the unlawful spying to cover up their role in the worst case of misuse of federal power in our history, to effect the removal or emasculation of the President, and now they are desperate to cover up their illegal actions when all that failed. Instapundit tweeted the answer succinctly: “The election was hacked!” turns out to mean, “ Russia bought some ads on Facebook .” ... Best of the Web’s James Freeman thinks that, in any case, the notion that these ads swung the election is ridiculous on its face: So the spending on fake Russian political ads identi...

Fuel Fix: Texas Congressman Lamar Smith has told the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google's parent company Alphabet to hand over documents related to anti-fracking ads that ran on their sites. Smith, a San Antonio Republican, is seeking information on whether the Russian government or affiliated entities were behind the ads as part of what Smith says is "efforts to manipulate the U.S. energy market." Earlier this month Facebook disclosed a Russian company affiliated with the the Kremlin had purchased more than $100,000 in political advertisements on controversial issues like immigration and gay rights. "In light of Facebook's disclosure... it is likely that Russia undertook a similar effort using social media to influence the U.S. energy market," Smith said in a statement. "Social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, have the ability to serve as an effective propaganda arm conveying specific messages to geographically targeted audiences....

BBC: Saudi Arabia driving ban on women to be lifted I am glad to see the restrictions have been lifted. But how will they know if the driver is the one with the license?

Washington Post: North Korea taps GOP analysts to better understand Trump and his messages North Korean government officials have been quietly trying to arrange talks with Republican-linked analysts in Washington, in an apparent attempt to make sense of President Trump and his confusing messages to Kim Jong Un’s regime. They could have learned all they need to know from reading this blog.  It is really not that complicated.  I am not clear on what they think is "confusing" about the President's message. He will not accept them as a nuclear power and he will not be intimidated by their bombast.  Their threats to attack the US and its allies actually empower Trump to make a preemptive strike against them.

NY Times: Trump’s N.F.L. Critique Is an Attempt to Shore Up His Base White House officials said President Trump is deeply worried that his recent show of bipartisanship endangers his standing with conservatives. They may have said this, but I do not buy it.  Trump saw an opportunity to put liberals on the defensive about their lack of patriotism and hit them hard.  There is wide public anger at the anthem protesters despite what many in the media try to convey.   The NFL's embrace of this protest which is based on the "hands up, don't shoot" lie that came out of events in Ferguson, Missouri is a disaster for the NFL.  Not only is the basis for the protest a lie, but the whole racial grievance aspect is off base.   Cops are 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black man than vice-versa. Liberals in the media and especially the liberals in the sports media appear to be studiously avoiding the lack of a basis for these protests.  The facts ju...

James Robbins: ... Defenders of the kneelers say the protest is itself an expression of Americanism, invoking the First Amendment and tradition of dissent. But this is not a First Amendment issue. Employers are allowed to regulate speech in the workplace . The NFL Personal Conduct Policy says that all employees “must refrain from conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL ,” which these protests surely are. The league regularly clamps down on social messaging, like wearing cleats commemorating the heroes of the 9/11 attacks or decals honoring slain Dallas law enforcement officers . Taking a knee for God can also be problematic, just ask Tim Tebow . But the anthem protests are explicitly league-sanctioned activities. The kneelers drew President Trump’s ire, who said that the proper response to the protests should be, “' Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He's fired!” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell bizarrely responded, “The...

Heather MacDonald: The FBI released its official crime tally for 2016 today, and the data flies in the face of the rhetoric that professional athletes rehearsed in revived Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend. Nearly 900 additional blacks were killed in 2016 compared with 2015, bringing the black homicide-victim total to 7,881. Those 7,881 “black bodies,” in the parlance of Ta-Nehisi Coates, are 1,305 more than the number of white victims (which in this case includes most Hispanics) for the same period, though blacks are only 13 percent of the nation’s population. The increase in black homicide deaths last year comes on top of a previous 900-victim increase between 2014 and 2015. Who is killing these black victims? Not whites, and not the police, but other blacks. In 2016, the police fatally shot 233 blacks, the vast majority armed and dangerous, according to the Washington Post. The Post categorized only 16 black male victims of police shootings as “unarmed.” That classif...

Bloomberg: China’s shipments of corn and wheat to North Korea surged as the nation in the center of a global nuclear standoff struggled with drought at home. Corn exports increased 4,586 percent in August from a year earlier to 14,057 metric tons, accounting for 97 percent of the total, according to customs data published on Tuesday. Wheat shipments climbed 5,405 percent from a year earlier to 6,001 tons, making North Korea the biggest buyer after Hong Kong, according to the data. The volumes compared with 21,006 tons of corn and 2,382 tons of wheat in July. North Korean demand for corn imports more typically peaks in September, seasonality analysis shows. ... Chinese customs data also showed rice shipments to North Korea rose 15 percent in August from a year earlier to 7,399 tons. Exports were 10,476 tons in July. Total exports from China to North Korea rose 25.3 percent in the year to August compared with the same period in 2016, to $2.28 billion. Other reports indicate that...