Recommended Reading

See Comey’s last stand for the deep state by Mark Penn, former Clinton aide and 2008 political strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton (with thanks to Silverfiddle for this link).

The full essay by Mark Penn is below the fold:

Syria

Surface to air missile fire over Damascus during the US-led raid on Syria.Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP

A perfectly executed strike last night. Thank you to France and the United Kingdom for their wisdom and the power of their fine Military. Could not have had a better result. Mission Accomplished!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 14, 2018

U.S., UK, France strike Syria in first coordinated action against Assad

Wise move?

Necessary move?

Related reading... Timeline of Syrian Chemical Weapons Activity, 2012-2018

and

Commentary: In Syria strike, the real danger is Russia.

Essential Character Trait

(For politics, please scroll down)

The polar opposite of being a fragile little snowflake:

Grit, often combined with faith, is the quality which the pioneers most needed to cross the plains and the deserts.

Moreover, nothing will ever replace grit. Nothing! Sadly, today's society as a whole fails to value and fails to cultivate grit.

Attorney-Client Privilege Violation?

Yesterday, April 9, 2018, the FBI raided Donald Trump's attorney's offices and home, and seized various materials, including but not limited to materials related to Stormy Daniels.

I happened to be at a client's office at the time this news broke. This particular client is far left in her political orientation and was clapping her hands with glee upon hearing the news.  She is, once again, for the umpteenth time, certain that President Trump will now be impeached.

When I asked my client, "But wasn't Mueller supposed to be investigating Russian collusion with regard to the General Election of 2016?" she swept away my statement as irrelevant.  

Please watch the video below to see liberal Alan Dershowitz's take on the above-mentioned FBI raids yesterday (never mind Hannity's often-irksome zeal to support Donald Trump and "get" Hillary):

Is Mueller overstepping the bounds of the investigation for which he was appointed?

Are we seeing the end of attorney-client privilege as a consequence of the Mueller investigation? If so, that is, in my view, a slippery slope?

Related reading: The Summer of Impeachment? by Erick Erickson. Excerpt:

...For a long time there have been rumors that among the payments made by or on behalf of Trump were payments made to women who had had abortions. This is perhaps the one thing that could get evangelicals off the Trump wagon and anything related to that is now in the hands of federal prosecutors....

Read the rest HERE.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Smart Woman EDUCATES Don Lemon On His Own Show

With a hat tip to Infidel Bloggers Alliance:


Is she too optimistic?

Weekend Humor

(For politics, please scroll down)


One of my Facebook finds (Click to enlarge):

As one who has been teaching in a classroom for some 45 years, I can vouch for the truth of the above graphic.

Instead of margaritas in the teachers' lounge, however, we teachers have settled for a coffeepot. Heh.

Video: Our Obese Federal Government

The interview below was recorded in 1995:

Harry Browne died in 2008.

And the recent $1.3 trillion Omnibus signed into law further bloats the federal government.

My Redeemer Lives!

[For politics, please scroll down]

From Handel's Messiah, Lynne Dawson sings the aria below, Stephen Cleobury conducting the Brandenburg Consort:

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. (Job 19:25-26)

For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep. (I Corinthians 15:20)

From Handel's Messiah, Stephen Cleobury conducting the Brandenburg Consort:

Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
(For the lord God omnipotent reigneth)
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah

For the lord God omnipotent reigneth
(Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah)
Hallelujah

The kingdom of this world;
Is become
The kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ
And of His Christ

And He shall reign for ever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever
And he shall reign forever and ever

The full Messiah concert below the fold, Stephen Cleobury conducting the Brandenburg Consort, with Lynne Dawson, soprano; Hillary Summers, alto; John Mark Ainsley, tenor; Alastair Miles, bass:

He Died For Me

(For politics, please scroll down)

From Handel's Messiah:

Lyrics:

24. Chorus: Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. (Isaiah 53: 4-5)

25. Chorus: And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53: 5)

26. Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Tucker Carlson On March For Our Lives

Introductory blurb from Conservative Tribune:

...Whenever someone calls Hogg out on the fact that being a shooting survivor does not make one an expert on constitutional law, gun policy, school security, or really anything other than your own experience, they’re called insensitive — almost as if the left is hiding behind these child soldiers, using them as human shields.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has had enough of this line of thinking....

Read the rest HERE.

Please take time to watch the following video before commenting:


Did you note the quotation from the Parkland Manifesto @ time marker 5:50ff? Tie medical charts to a database of gun purchasers, and privacy laws should be amended so that the government keeps medical records! Wowzer!


One more video possibly of interest (never mind the hideous, monotone narrator):

1968 Film: Wild in the Streets

[For this week's Break from Politics, please scroll down]

Posted without commentary...for now.

Trailer:

Full movie:

Suda The Elephant

(For politics, please scroll down)

One of my Facebook finds:

More "elephant art" HERE.

Related reading: Can jumbo elephants really paint? Intrigued by stories, naturalist Desmond Morris set out to find the truth.

Another kind of elephant video:

An Outbreak Of Common Sense?

Could it be that Common Sense was prematurely buried?

From Anti-Sanctuary Push Spreads to Other California Cities: Orange County, Aliso Viejo, and Buena Park officials plan to push for similar action (dated March 21, 2018, emphases mine):

Orange County and several other cities in California could follow the lead of Los Alamitos and opt out of the state’s controversial law that restricts local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Los Alamitos, the second smallest city in Orange County with a population of 11,500, late Monday rejected the state's so-called sanctuary law in a vote of 4-1 of the city council.

Officials with Orange County and the cities of Aliso Viejo and Buena Park reached out to Los Alamitos officials and began publicly expressing support and intentions to take up similar anti-sanctuary language.

"We are a little city in Orange County, but we're tired of things coming out of Sacramento that just don't make sense, and now others are telling us they feel the same way," said Warren Kusumoto, the Los Alamitos councilman who wrote the anti-sanctuary ordinance.

In an interview, Kusumoto said he introduced the language opting out of the new state law because he said state officials are "bullying" city leaders into picking sides between following federal or state law.

Choosing state law over federal law forces local officials to violate their oath of office to defend the U.S. Constitution, he said.

"We want to declare that we are not a sanctuary city and we will defend and support the United States because we have taken an oath, and this is the same oath that folks in Sacramento have taken as well as the governor and the Senate," he said....

Read the rest HERE.

Sinking Their Own Ship

The sense of entitlement on crack cocaine — and this murderer is not even an American citizen.

Photo by: Michael Macor
In this July 7, 2015, file photo, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, right, is led into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, left, and Assistant District Attorney Diana Garciaor, center, for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. Garcia Zarate, a homeless undocumented immigrant acquitted of killing Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier ,is scheduled to be sentenced on a lesser gun charge Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. (Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)

From Illegal immigrant charged in Kate Steinle death accuses government of ‘vindictive’ prosecution (Washington Times, March 15, 2018):

Happy St. Patrick's Day — And Open Thread

So, what's on your mind?


Here is your chance to opine within the parameters listed below:

Minxy!

(For politics, please scroll down)

Our beloved Minxy on March 15, 2018:

Minxy Queen of the Recliner

Like our beloved Cameo (2001-2017), Minxy (born September 8, 2017) is an alpha and sits wherever she desires.

Our beloved Cameo in December 2015:

Cameo Queen of the Recliner

Recommended Reading

See My Family Fled Socialism. Let's Not Give It a Try Here in the U.S. by Gabriella Hoffman. 

Excerpt:

Here's my response to a Washington Post column calling for socialism in the U.S.

Socialism wasn't implemented correctly in the 20th century, we're told. Millions dying? "That wasn't supposed to happen under Marxist-Leninism!", leftists decry. We told, "If we're given a second chance, we'll do it correctly!"

Hogwash....

Read the rest HERE.

Washington Post opinion piece to which Ms. Hoffman refers was published on March 6, 2018, and can be read in its entirety below the fold.

True?

Some call this change "progress."

Really? Really?

California: America's Future

** Silverfiddle Dispatch **

Since the Gold Rush days, California has pointed the way for the rest of America.  From music to fashion, exercise, food and fad diets America follows the lead of LA, Hollywood, and latterly, Silicon Valley. California sets the trends, and whatever is going on there will soon be the rage in the rest of the nation.

NBC Investigates San Francisco's Diseased Streets

"How dirty is San Francisco? An NBC Bay Area Investigation reveals a dangerous mix of drug needles, garbage, and feces throughout downtown San Francisco."

"“If you do get stuck with these disposed needles you can get HIV, Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B, and a variety of other viral diseases,” said Dr. Lee Riley, an infectious disease expert at University of California, Berkeley. He warned that once fecal matter dries, it can become airborne, releasing potentially dangerous viruses, such as the rotavirus."

"UC Berkeley professor Lee Riley, who specializes in infectious diseases, told NBC Bay Area that the level of insanitary conditions on the worst SF blocks is “much greater than communities in Brazil or Kenya or India.”

El Lay Times: Why is liberal California the poverty capital of America?

"Guess which state has the highest poverty rate in the country? Not Mississippi, New Mexico, or West Virginia, but California, where nearly one out of five residents is poor."

"55% of immigrant families in the state get some kind of means-tested benefits, compared with just 30% of natives."

VDH: Understanding the California Mind 

Listen to him; he has lived and worked in California his whole life.

"... one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients lives in California and that one of four state residents was not born in the United States ... one in four homeless people lives in California."

VDH describes the scenery on a trip to town...

"...several families are living on lots zoned for single-family residences in an array of illegal sheds, shacks, and stationary trailers.

"The premises are characterized by illegal dumping, zoning and building code violations, illegal electrical hook-ups, and petty misdemeanors of unlicensed dogs and strays.

"I remember similar such rural settlements from my early youth in the 1950s, over a decade after the final end of the Great Depression. Now, in our back-to-the-future state, we see some concrete reminders of what my parents used to relate about life in the 1930s.

"...trash piled by the almond orchard: two infant car seats; one entertainment center, three bags of wet garbage, one mattress, one stroller, five tires, and a stack of broken cement, paint cans, and drywall.

"The California solution is always the same: the law-abiding must adjust to the non-law-abiding."

"Some time ago I was bitten by two dogs while biking down a rural avenue nearby. The animals’ owners did not speak English, refused to tie up the unlicensed and unvaccinated biters, and in fact let their other dogs out, one of which also bit me.

"It took four calls to various legal authorities and a local congressional rep to have the dogs quarantined in an effort to avoid rabies shots. The owners were never cited."

Cynicism is rampant. Law-abiding Californians do whatever is necessary not to come to the attention of any authorities, whose desperate need for both revenue and perceived social justice (150,000 households in a state of 40 million residents pay about 50 percent of California income tax revenue) is carnivorous.... 

...it is always legally safer to allow your dog to be devoured by a stray pit-bull than to shoot the pit-bull to save your dog.

* * *

Sounds like a third-world shitehole to me. Are you looking forward to the Brave New World California Progressives are leading us to?

Related:

Oakland's Maoist mayor tips off illegals to ICE raids
Search: California Poverty Rate

Some San Francisco Streets filthier than world's poorest slums, says Berkley Professor

More related:

California Housing Crunch Pits Liberals Against One Another
How can a place with 58,000 homeless people continue to function?
Leaving California? The Trend Intensifies
California Losing Residents via Domestic Migration

Musical Interlude

(For politics, please scroll down)

Enjoy Andante Festivo by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957):

[some details about the above piece]

YouTube blurb:

The 'Andante festivo' was written for string quartet in 1922 shortly before the Sixth Symphony. The composer later expanded it for string orchestra with 'ad lib' timpani, and on 1 January 1939 he conducted a performance in Helsinki for short-wave radio transmission to the World Exhibition in New York. This performance was preserved on wax as a poignant historical memento. It was the last time Sibelius conducted, and is the only known recorded exemple of his conducting. The noble, seamless melody is as close as he came to a religious statement. There are, in addition, intriguing suggestions of Dvorak's Symphony 'From the New World' (or is it 'God Save the Queen'?) and Sibelius' own later Seventh Symphony, and an unmistakeable final 'Amen' cadence. (c) Robert Dearling, 1993