If you don’t peruse conservative websites and alternate media you would not be aware of the censorship from social media websites attacking conservative ideas and commentary. The censorship is real. It is a disgrace. It is ongoing. It is becoming extreme.

Normally I would not consider government intervention in a situation like this, but in this case social media websites have become similar to the airwaves. They should be free of censorship and open to almost all ideas and commentary. There are few exceptions to this rule. The antidote to ugly and hateful speech is more speech, not censorship. The left does not accept this because they know they cannot win the argument and are not willing to try.

From the Super Galactic Nitwit file

Michael Walsh:

“…Even in a faith founded upon the notion that there is no such thing as an unforgivable sin, should the penitent be sincere, what has been occurring in the church over the past 70 years or so would surely test the mercy of Christ himself.

No need to go over the nauseating details. The Church—and clearly not just in Pennsylvania—has descended into a nest of predatory perverts, largely but not exclusively homosexual, but child-molesters all. Even worse, its upper administrative reaches, the bishops, have conducted a cover-up under the guise of “compassion” and “protecting the Church,” denying, obfuscating, and lying about the extent of the problem—even as some of them were charter members of the racket. Their sanctimony is even more sickening than the sins they concealed, if such a thing is possible.

Sexual peccadilloes have always been part of every human institution, including the Catholic Church. The priapic cleric has been a staple of creative pornography since Rabelais and de Sade, and the list of sins attributable to the popes alone would make a harlot blush. Such tales of dissipation and license fueled the animosity against the Church, especially in France, and the French Revolution’s violent destruction of the ancient regime was as much directed against the Church as it was against the monarchy. To this day, laïcité is one of the French Republic’s guiding principles, and it’s no accident that into the Gallic spiritual void left by ostracized Christianity has rushed recrudescent Islam. Satan, like Nature, abhors a vacuum…”

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/15/the-shame-of-the-church/

“…Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and the state’s Bond Commission denied $600 million to Citibank and Bank of America over the gun control stance adopted by both companies. Citibank and Bank of America were both to be part of a road financing plan in the state, but were omitted from the financial plan after arbitrarily placing new gun controls on banking customers. Louisiana Executive Division press secretary Ruth Wisher told Breitbart News that Landry and State Treasurer John Schroder have been working on the state’s response to corporate gun control ‘for some time.’ Omitting them from the $600 million is part of that response…”

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/16/louisiana-attorney-general-denies-600-million-to-citibank-bank-of-america-over-gun-control/

Kimberley A. Strassel;

“…The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department have continued to insist they did nothing wrong in their Trump-Russia investigation. This week should finally bring an end to that claim, given the clear evidence of malfeasance via the use of Bruce Ohr.

Mr. Ohr was until last year associate deputy attorney general. He began feeding information to the FBI from dossier author Christopher Steele in late 2016—after the FBI had terminated Mr. Steele as a confidential informant for violating the bureau’s rules. He also collected dirt from Glenn Simpson, cofounder of Fusion GPS, the opposition-research firm that worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and employed Mr. Steele. Altogether, the FBI pumped Mr. Ohr for information at least a dozen times, debriefs that remain in classified 302 forms.

All the while, Mr. Ohr failed to disclose on financial forms that his wife, Nellie, worked alongside Mr. Steele in 2016, getting paid by Mr. Simpson for anti-Trump research. The Justice Department has now turned over Ohr documents to Congress that show how deeply tied up he was with the Clinton crew—with dozens of emails, calls, meetings and notes that describe his interactions and what he collected.

Mr. Ohr’s conduct is itself deeply troubling. He was acting as a witness (via FBI interviews) in a case being overseen by a Justice Department in which he held a very senior position. He appears to have concealed this role from at least some superiors, since Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified that he’d been unaware of Mr. Ohr’s intermediary status.

Lawyers meanwhile note that it is a crime for a federal official to participate in any government matter in which he has a financial interest. Fusion’s bank records presumably show Nellie Ohr, and by extension her husband, benefiting from the Trump opposition research that Mr. Ohr continued to pass to the FBI. The Justice Department declined to comment.

But for all Mr. Ohr’s misdeeds, the worse misconduct is by the FBI and Justice Department. It’s bad enough that the bureau relied on a dossier crafted by a man in the employ of the rival presidential campaign. Bad enough that it never informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of that dossier’s provenance. And bad enough that the FBI didn’t fire Mr. Steele as a confidential human source in September 2016 when it should have been obvious he was leaking FBI details to the press to harm Donald Trump’s electoral chances. It terminated him only when it was absolutely forced to, after Mr. Steele gave an on-the-record interview on Oct. 31, 2016.

But now we discover the FBI continued to go to this discredited informant in its investigation after the firing—by funneling his information via a Justice Department cutout. The FBI has an entire manual governing the use of confidential sources, with elaborate rules on validations, standards and documentation. Mr. Steele failed these standards. The FBI then evaded its own program to get at his info anyway.

And it did so even though we have evidence that lead FBI investigators may have suspected Mr. Ohr was a problem…”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-was-bruce-ohr-doing-1534462447

Great piece by Don Surber

“…Omarosa. The show trial for Paul Manafort. These are the things CNN chipmunks chattered about endlessly the last few days. But CNN has no news judgment because it is run by a moron with a Harvard degree and a Napoleon Complex.

To find the news, I read the South China Morning Post, which is worried spitless that the Red Chinese economy will tank like its stock market has.

(Its stocks overall have declined in value by 40% in the last three years. Our stocks are up 33% since we elected Trump. In the eight years from Obama’s election to Trump’s, the Dow rose by 33%.)

The newspaper is running a series of columns by panicked investors and experts.

Aidan Yao is senior emerging Asia economist at AXA Investment Managers.

Yao wrote, “China needs to put its house in order as the trade war goes from bad to worse.”

He pointed out, “In contrast with the progress seen in United States-European Union negotiations, there are no signs of trade talks resuming between the US and China since the breakdown of negotiations in June.”

There are 375 billion reasons this is bad for Red China. That is the number of dollars its profit was from exports to the United States last year.

Xu Yimiao is an independent China-based researcher.

Xu wrote, “China should cut its losses in the trade war by conceding defeat to Donald Trump.”

He spared not Chairman Xi’s regime.

“Beijing’s strategy of a tit-for-tat retaliation over tariffs has clearly failed. In fact, this strategy escalated the conflict. The direct retaliation after the US announced the first batch of 25 per cent tariffs on US$50 billion in Chinese goods (with the increase from US$34 billion just finalised and coming into effect on August 23) brought few benefits for China. If anything, it gave the US an excuse to plan for a new batch of tariffs covering US$200 billion in Chinese goods. To be fair, it is possible that the US would have escalated the conflict even if China had not retaliated, but whatever the case may be, China’s strategy did not work,” Xu wrote.

Here’s the problem, we buy roughly $500 billion of their stuff. They buy only $125 billion or so of our stuff. We have four times as much to tariff as they do.

Xu ended his piece, “To get out of this predicament, Beijing probably needs to deal with Trump directly, figure out what he needs to declare a win and create conditions for that. Of course, allowing Trump to declare victory might be tough and even embarrassing for Beijing, but sometimes it is the best choice to stop losses in one trade and hope to profit at another time.”

Reporters Wendy Wu and Kristin Huang wrote, “Did China think Donald Trump was bluffing on trade? How Beijing got it wrong.”

This happens when your intelligence consists of spying on Dianne Feinstein and watching CNN.

Fraser Howie is co-author of “Red Capitalism, The Fragile Financial Foundations of China’s Extraordinary Rise.”

Howie wrote, “China has no idea how to play Trump, and it is doing what it always does when it smells trouble.”

Thanks, Red China.

Predictability plays right into President Trump’s hands.

“Beijing may be shocked by how things have played out for the moment, but they haven’t lost control of levers of power in the economy, nor are they going to stand by as pressure mounts. A coordinated monetary and fiscal policy can indeed avert short-term impacts, but China hasn’t even cleaned up the post-financial crisis stimulus and is now embarking on another as the outlook becomes ever more complicated,” Howie wrote.

“Yet again, China is facing a very delicate balancing act. In November, America will see midterm elections which could change the dynamic again, but the possibility of a second term for Trump should not be discounted. China will continue to be in Trump’s crosshairs. Pumping more money into an already bloated economy may have worked in the past, but the Chinese may find out that indeed this time really is different.”

It is brutal. The money men are not pleased with Chairman Xi. That may explain, in part, this last story from Bloomberg News.

“Asian stocks pared losses and Treasury yields ticked higher after China said its vice commerce minister will visit the U.S. for trade talks in late August. The dollar slipped along with the yen,” Bloomberg reported.

He will bring the white flag. How do you say “no mas” in Mandarin?

Oh, the press will play this as a big win for Red China. When was the last time the press got President Trump right?…”

https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2018/08/trump-has-red-china-reeling.html?spref=tw

This is outstanding. If you think the nonsense the media covers and presents about the Trump Administration is true, watch this. This is how government should work. This type of high level policy meeting should be made public on a regular basis. I applaud the president and his capable secretaries for their good and hard work.

OpEd in the Washington Times:

“…What set off the latest Trump-press contretemps was a speech the president made in Pennsylvania, where he cried “Fake! Fake! and identified reporters and pundits the enemy of the people, and this so wounded Jim Acosta of CNN News that he all but collapsed in tears in an exchange with Sarah Huckabee Sanders in the White House press room. “We all get put through the wringer,” he said in a pitiful voice that broke hearts from Chevy Chase to Bethesda. “We all get put in the meat grinder in this town.” Wringer or meat grinder, being there was not a good place to be.

There was more. “For the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what you’re saying, Sarah, and the White House for the United States of America, the president of the United States should not refer to us as the enemy of the people.”

This was sob-sister stuff of an earlier day, before the press was the media, and newspapermen (including women) reveled in the knowledge that their publishers bought ink by the barrel and it never occurred to anyone to seek an apology for sharp words from a president, a governor, or an alderman. It was all a part of the game, and newspapers and presidents took a certain pride in giving as good as they got.

The press, or “the media,” as it now includes television, an entertainment medium not given to sober examination of events, has lost much of its reputation as a tribune of the people. A recent Gallup/Knight Foundation poll found that 62 percent of U.S. adults believe the news they get from traditional sources — newspapers, radio and television — is biased. Nearly half — 44 percent — think the information is inaccurate, and 39 percent even conclude that it’s misinformation cooked for a gullible audience. Social media fared even worse: Eighty percent of respondents reckon the material that flashes across their electronic devices is sometimes dodgy. Fake news is a reality, and has been since long before the Trump era.

Americans are by nature suspicious of conformity of thought. When nearly every flick of the TV remote and click of the computer mouse brings up an avalanche of anti-Trump news, it sure looks like groupthink. Pundits of the small screen cried on camera when Hillary Clinton went down on Election Night in 2016. The speculation that “Trumpcolluded with Russia” travels relentlessly in a closed loop, with press and television heavyweights vying to play “can you top this?” with the latest gossip and manufactured rumor.

The rallying cry for a united editorial-page assault on President Trump is “courage in numbers.” The press has a responsibility to identify every president’s misdeeds, and pay no attention to slings, arrows, and insults aimed its way. Setting out to take down a president by any means necessary is not the role of a responsible press. When newspapers return to their fundamental role, the public reputation of the press will recover. The sooner the better…”

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/aug/15/editorial-the-press-is-not-the-enemy-of-the-people/

Nolan Finley:

“…Our feelings are hurt in the news media. The president of the United States is calling us the Enemy of the People and we don’t like it.

So across the nation today, newspapers are publishing editorials telling Donald Trump, “We are not, you are!” and reminding readers of our own importance.

Let me join them: The free press is not the people’s enemy. It is a vital pillar of our democracy and was assigned by the Founders the role of watch-dogging the nation’s institutions. It’s a mission we usually carry out quite well, even in this era of technological disruptions, changing consumer tastes and eroding resources.

But who really cares if Donald Trump is using us as a whipping boy to mask his many deficiencies? Presidents have done that before, and often.

Trump may be both more relentless and obnoxious than his predecessors, but cries of “Fake News!” from the Oval Office are old hat. Presidents always blame the messenger. Even Barack Obama, the object of so much media fawning, groused about distorted coverage.

This time, though, we are taking it personally. Striking at the bait Trump dangles. Joining the war he’s declared. Allowing him to goad us into abandoning the fundamental principles of our profession.

Donald Trump is not responsible for the eroding trust in the media. He lacks the credibility to pull that off. The damage to our standing is self-inflicted…”

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/nolan-finley/2018/08/16/media-must-look-itself-restore-trust/979467002/

Jack Shafer:

“…Most journalists agree that there’s a great need for Trump rebuttals. I’ve written my share. But this Globe-sponsored coordinated editorial response is sure to backfire: It will provide Trump with circumstantial evidence of the existence of a national press cabal that has been convened solely to oppose him. When the editorials roll off the press on Thursday, all singing from the same script, Trump will reap enough fresh material to whale on the media for at least a month. His forthcoming speeches almost write themselves: By colluding against me, the fake media proved once and for all, that they are in cahoots with the Democrats and have declared themselves to be my true political opposition …

The Globe’s anti-Trump project is also an exercise in redundancy, not to mention self-stroking. Most newspapers have already published a multitude of editorials and columns rebuking the president for his trash-talking of the press. Most major editorial boards opposed Trump’s election, according to this tally by Business Insider. The largest of the 19 newspapers to endorse Trump was the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by one of his faithful donors, Sheldon Adelson. More than 240 endorsed Hillary Clinton. Editorial-page sentiment against Trump remains largely unchanged since the election, making the call for a collective reprimand all the more pointless…”

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/08/14/americas-newspapers-just-played-right-into-trumps-hands-219360

“…An Iraqi national who entered the U.S. as a refugee was arrested this afternoon on charges he participated in ISIS killings in Iraq in 2014.

The arrest of Omar Abdulsattar Ameen comes after an arrest warrant was issued by an Iraqi court in May.

According to the Justice Department press release, Ameen is accused of involvement in ISIS killings in Anbar province, Iraq:

The Iraqi arrest warrant and extradition request allege that after the town of Rawah, Iraq fell to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) on June 21, 2014, Ameen entered the town with a caravan of ISIS vehicles and drove to the house of the victim, who had served as an officer in the Rawah Police Department. On the evening of June 22, 2014, after the caravan arrived at the victim’s house, Ameen and other members of the convoy allegedly opened fire on the victim. Ameen then allegedly fired his weapon at the victim while the victim was on the ground, killing him.

Ameen, originally of Rawah, in the Anbar province of Iraq, fled Iraq following the alleged murder, and later settled in Sacramento as a purported refugee. It is alleged that Ameen’s family supported and assisted the installation of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in Rawah, and that Ameen was a member of AQI and ISIS. It is also alleged that he participated in various activities in support of those terrorist organizations, including helping to plant improvised explosive devices, and committing the murder that is the subject of the extradition request. Ameen concealed his membership in those terrorist groups when he applied for refugee status, and later when he applied for a green card in the United States.

A detention memo filed in the case states that the FBI has been investigating the case since 2016:

Evidence gathered in a Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) investigation of Ameen, ongoing since 2016, corroborates Ameen’s membership in and actions on behalf of AQI and ISIS, including the murder.

News outlets in the Sacramento area reported on FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force activity earlier in the day:

The FBI could only tell us “warrant activity” is occurring at the Eastern Villa Apartments today. Sacramento sheriff’s deputies are here, too. So was Metro Fire. We’ve seen FBI in Joint Terrorism Task Force jackets.

The Justice Department states that Ameen lied on his refugee application to conceal his past terrorist activities, and on his application for a green card…”

A side note: Sacramento is a declared “sanctuary city.”

It’s no laughing matter — SF forming Poop Patrol to keep sidewalks clean

You can’t make this stuff up!

“The New York Times has an advice column about how to ‘cure’ white skin privilege.”

This is not the 21st century I was anticipating!

Donald Rumsfeld was mocked for saying the eastern NATO countries of “New Europe” were taking defense more seriously than the traditional western NATO allies. Mocked, but accurate; to twist a phrase.

“…The jump in acquisitions behind the former Iron Curtain of aircraft, ships and armored vehicles began when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, well before Trump’s 2016 election victory, according to analysts including Tomas Valasek, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels. While the median defense expenditure of NATO members is 1.36 percent of gross domestic product, below the alliance’s requirement of 2 percent, eastern members comprise seven of the 13 members that are paying above that level.

“Countries on NATO’s eastern border do not need Donald Trump to boost defense spending,” Valasek said. “They decided this long before he came to power. The spending boost was because of a president, but it was Vladimir Putin, not the U.S. President.”

Constant overflights by Russian aircraft into NATO airspace, cyberattacks on government and military installations, wargames on the borders of the Baltic states and accusations that Russia was behind a failed coup in newest member Montenegro have put NATO’s eastern quadrant on alert for what it says is an increasingly expansionist Russia. Of the 15 members exceeding the bloc’s guideline that 20 percent of total defense spending should go to equipment, six are from eastern Europe…”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-13/nato-s-east-is-rearming-but-it-s-because-of-putin-not-trump

About time

I remember that Gorbachev was not super thrilled with Reagan’s defense budgets either. Look how that turned out. 

“…The bill received widespread bipartisan backing in Congress, amid a growing acknowledgment that the U.S. is facing an increased threat from Russia and China.

The bill is considered particularly tough on China, targeting several areas of concern for the Pentagon, including the increased Chinese military activity in the South China Sea, Beijing’s pursuit of cutting-edge U.S. technology and the spread of Communist Party propaganda at American institutions.

China’s commerce, defense and foreign ministries all issued statements slamming the bill’s proposals.

The commerce ministry focused on a ban on Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE. The U.S. government and government contractors will now largely be blocked from using the companies’ products in the future, though in non-critical systems some products will still be allowed.

China’s foreign ministry pointed out that the act was passed despite Beijing’s strong objections, and it was dissatisfied with the “negative content related to China.”…”

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/qvmnn7/china-trump-defense-bill-john-mccain