Jack Kemp


This fight is just beginning. With around half of all MS users still on Windows 7 (myself included), there will be a fight. Soon or later, however, I suspect I'll have to upgrade.

Jack

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/windows-7-update-microsoft-81-download-windows-10-software-a7684256.html

Microsoft starts forcing Windows 7 and 8.1 users to update to Windows 10
Changes to Microsoft's policy have also created plenty of confusion / REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
Users who stick with the older software will knowingly expose themselves to cybercriminals

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Wil Wirtanen

http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/262157/every-republican-presidential-candidate-hitler-daniel-greenfield

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Jack Kemp forwards this:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/steve-bannon-may-have-something-to-offer-1492126592
Does Steve Bannon Have Something to Offer?

In 2014 the beleaguered White House aide raised important moral questions about today’s capitalism.
Steve Bannon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Feb. 23. Photo: European Pressphoto Agency

By
Peggy Noonan
April 13, 2017 7:36 p.m. ET

My late friend Bill Safire, the tough and joyous New York Times columnist, once gave me good advice. I was not then a newspaper columnist, but he’d apparently decided I would be. This is what he said: Never join a pile-on, always hit ’em when they’re up. Don’t criticize the person who’s already being attacked. What’s the fun in that, where’s the valor? Hit them when they’re flying high and it takes some guts.

So, in the matter of Steve Bannon :

I think we can agree he brings a certain amount of disorder. They say he’s rough and tough, and there’s no reason to doubt it. They say he leaks like a sieve and disparages his rivals, and this can be assumed to be correct: They all do that in this White House. He is accused of saying incendiary things and that is true. A week into the administration he told Michael Grynbaum of the Times the media should "keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while.” "I love a gunfight,” he reportedly said in the middle of his latest difficulties. When he tried to muscle members of the Freedom Caucus to vote for the ObamaCare replacement bill, a congressman blandly replied, "You know, the last time someone ordered me to do something I was 18 years old, and it was my daddy, and I didn’t listen to him, either.” When I said a while back that some of the president’s aides are outlandish, and confuse strength with aggression, he was in mind.

But there’s something low, unseemly and ugly in the efforts to take him out so publicly and humiliatingly, to turn him into a human oil spot on the tarmac—this not only from his putative colleagues but now even the president. "I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Mr. Trump purred to the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin.

Peggy Noonan: Pulitzer Prize Winner for Commentary 2017

So let’s take a look at something impressive Mr. Bannon has done. I’ve been meaning to write of it for a while. In 2014 he did a live Skype interview for a conference on poverty at the Vatican. BuzzFeed ran it during the campaign under the headline "This Is How Steve Bannon Sees the Entire World.”
It shows an interesting mind at work.

The West is currently facing a "crisis of capitalism,” he said. The world was able to recover after the world wars in part thanks to "an enlightened form of capitalism” that generated "tremendous wealth” broadly distributed among all classes. This capitalism was shaped by "the underlying spiritual and moral foundations . . . of Judeo-Christian belief.” Successful capitalists were often either "active participants in the Jewish faith” or "active participants in the Christian faith.” They operated on a kind of moral patrimony, part tradition, part religious teaching. But now the West has become more secular. Capitalism as a result has grown "unmoored” and is going "partly off track.”

He speaks of two "disturbing” strands. "One is state-sponsored capitalism,” as in China and Russia. We also, to a degree, see it in America. This is "a brutal form of capitalism” in which wealth and value are distributed to "a very small subset of people.” It is connected to crony capitalism. He criticizes the Republican Party as "really a collection of crony capitalists that feel they have a different set of rules of how they’re going to comport themselves.”

Read the whole thingat the Wall Street Journal

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A reading from the Gospel of Matthew:

36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 He went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Jesus Arrested

47 While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: "The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” 49 Going at once to Jesus, Judas said, "Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him.

50 Jesus replied, "Do what you came for, friend.”[d]

Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.

52 "Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. 53 Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”

55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, "Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
Jesus Before the Sanhedrin

57 Those who had arrested Jesus took him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the teachers of the law and the elders had assembled. 58 But Peter followed him at a distance, right up to the courtyard of the high priest. He entered and sat down with the guards to see the outcome.

59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death. 60 But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward.

Finally two came forward 61 and declared, "This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’”

62 Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, "Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” 63 But Jesus remained silent.

The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

64 "You have said so,” Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”[e]

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. 66 What do you think?”

"He is worthy of death,” they answered.

67 Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him 68 and said, "Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?”
Peter Disowns Jesus

69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. "You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.

70 But he denied it before them all. "I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, "This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

72 He denied it again, with an oath: "I don’t know the man!”

73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”

74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, "I don’t know the man!”

Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Judas Hangs Himself

27 Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. 2 So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor.

3 When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders. 4 "I have sinned,” he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

"What is that to us?” they replied. "That’s your responsibility.”

5 So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

6 The chief priests picked up the coins and said, "It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. 8 That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, 10 and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”[f]
Jesus Before Pilate

11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?”

"You have said so,” Jesus replied.

12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, "Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

15 Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. 16 At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus[g] Barabbas. 17 So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” 18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.

19 While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: "Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

20 But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.

21 "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor.

"Barabbas,” they answered.

22 "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.

They all answered, "Crucify him!”

23 "Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.

But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!”

24 When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. "It is your responsibility!”

25 All the people answered, "His blood is on us and on our children!”

26 Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.
The Soldiers Mock Jesus

27 Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
The Crucifixion of Jesus

32 As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means "the place of the skull”). 34 There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. 35 When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. 36 And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. 37 Above his head they placed the written charge against him: this is jesus, the king of the jews.

38 Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads 40 and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!” 41 In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. 42 "He saved others,” they said, "but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.
The Death of Jesus

45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli,[h] lema sabachthani?” (which means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, "He’s calling Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49 The rest said, "Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and[j] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

54 When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, "Surely he was the Son of God!”

55 Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph,[k] and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.
The Burial of Jesus

57 As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. 58 Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
The Guard at the Tomb

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 "Sir,” they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 "Take a guard,” Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

THIS IS THE GOSPEL OF THE LORD

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Jack Kemp forwards this:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/a_stranger_in_my_own_land.html

April 14, 2017
A Stranger in My Own Land
By Susan D. Harris
It was my 11th-year social studies class when the teacher gave us some "Xeroxed" papers – still warm, with that "just copied" smell, and repeating that old school refrain: "Take one and pass it back."
A square box was drawn in the center of the sheet, and there was a line for the student's name in the corner. The teacher told us to put whatever we wanted in the box, but to think hard about it first.
I took everything very seriously in 11th grade, so I asked myself, "If I have one box to put anything in, I should put the most important thing in the whole world. So what is the most important thing in the whole world?" It came to me like a bolt of lightning: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." I wrote the verse in the tiny box and passed my paper forward.
Within a few days, the teacher returned our papers. We were told they had not been graded, only "reviewed" because they were a "social experiment." She explained that what we put in the empty box represented what would be the most important thing in our lives – the essence that would drive everything we did. Reflecting later in life, I was impressed with its accuracy. My faith, and sharing it, has been the most important thing in my life. It seems that the box experiment worked for me, but I have serious doubts about how well it worked for classmates who filled their boxes with everything from boats to lions.
If They Have Persecuted Me, They Will Also Persecute You
Now I realize how blessed I am to have been born in a country where I could write John 3:16 in a classroom assignment and not be persecuted or killed for it. In many countries, that one act could have been my death sentence. There have been plenty of reports that Christians belong to the most persecuted religious group in the world. And while there are those who envy their peaceful, tolerant Hindu and Buddhist neighbors in America, back in their countries of origin – India or Sri Lanka, for instance – there are Hindu and Buddhist nationals beating, raping, and killing Christians at an alarming rate. If they're lucky and get to live, these Christians face a fine for choosing the wrong faith.
I once knew a Christian-basher who posted on social media, "Persecution of Christians? How stupid. It doesn't exist." Indeed, it didn't exist in her little town, where everybody met on Sunday mornings to do business at the popular social club – otherwise known as the Methodist Church. Nobody there had endured a Muslim mob ripping off someone's crucifix while yelling, "F--- Jesus!" or watched blood-soaked deacons stumbling dazed from the ruins of a church bombing on Palm Sunday. That's too far-fetched for Pleasant Valley. And if anyone had suggested a three-year prison sentence for holding a home Bible study, he would have been laughed out of town. (A prison sentence is exactly what happened recently to Chinese citizen Ma Huichao and four of her fellow Christians, who were arrested for the trumped up charge of "gathering a crowd to disturb public order.")
But Isn't Everybody Christian?
Years ago, before the tragedy of the World Trade Center, I bought a Bible as a Christmas gift for a fellow employee. I inscribed it: "To one of the finest Christians I know." Later on, she said, "That was kind of strange what you wrote...about my being one of the finest Christians you know."
"Well, you are!"
She continued hesitantly, "We're all pretty much Christians, aren't we? We're all born that way. So it sounds kind of funny."
Needless to say, by the time 9/11/2001 rolled around, my friend had a tough learning curve.
Is a Post-Christian Era Already Here?
Who would have guessed that by 2017, traditional middle-class Christian America would be expected to unquestioningly acquiesce to any and all whims from Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, pagans, wiccans, Satanists, Muslims, freethinkers, gays, and everyone else who deviates from their traditionally held beliefs? If they express concern that other religions or worldviews might destructively infringe upon their way of life, they are labeled intolerant or xenophobic. Social networking sites can be found full of suggestions that Christian nut-jobs just die off and let the world evolve beyond the antiquated biblical morality that hung witches from the gallows.
The trouble lies in the fact that modern Christians and secularists now agree that morality, as defined in the Bible, is all relative. Relativism automatically undermines any permanent ideas of right and wrong, which in turn strips Christianity of any moral authority it had as the glue that held society together. Years ago, political theorist Russell Kirk wrote that "the essence of social conservatism is preservation of the ancient moral traditions of humanity." Assuming that this is true, one might easily argue that the essence is gone.
If I say God says something is wrong – i.e., a sin – I am informed (silenced) that my interpretation is disputable and relative to my own (probably twisted) worldview.
Many say we've reached a post-Christian era in America. While a Pew poll showed that 70% of Americans continue to identify as Christian, I submit that these Americans are not the same kind of Christian one would have found 25 years ago. The simplest indicator of this is that the majority of Americans – including self-identified Christians – now support attempting to redefine marriage to apply to same-sex couples. The Bible didn't change its teaching on the subject, but people's perception of sin changed in response to social mores influenced by political activists and professional lobbyists.
Modern Christianity is like a supermarket tomato. It doesn't taste anything like how it tasted, say, 50 years ago. "Decades of breeding the fruit for uniform color" is one reason the tomato has changed, and one could easily say the same about Christianity: it's been bred for uniform acceptance and watered down to a palatable ideology, thus removing the underpinning judgments that supported civilized society. Lies have become untruths; adultery is a societal norm. "Thou shalt not kill" is about the only commandment most can agree on, but even that gets murky for those still inside the womb or nearing the end of their natural lives.
It seems that every stumbling block to sin is being removed from our path so we can run full speed to a hell that we (ironically) still believe in. We do all the things the Bible tells us not to do but still tell pollsters we believe in God – as if God won't notice. It's kind of like name-dropping someone you don't know just so you can crash the party.
Afraid to Be Christian in America?
I live in an area surrounded by occult shops that cater to pagans, Satanists and others who rightfully believe society gave them carte blanche to openly practice anything they see fit. "Pagan Pride" and witch related bumper stickers slightly outnumber left-over "Bernie 2016" and "Clinton/Kaine" stickers.
(Maybe "deaths of despair" are on the rise among America's middle class because, without even leaving their front porch rocking chairs, they have been uprooted and thrown into a land of chaos where they are lost among the libertines.)
Add to this the fact that my area is also experiencing an influx of Muslim refugees who refuse to assimilate, and I'm suddenly a stranger in my own land. Speaking English outs me as a local; wearing a cross marks me as a judgmental Puritan.
My local supermarket is now frequented by women in hijabs walking behind their husbands. I've even seen little girls in full niqabs (head coverings that reveal only the eyes, which apparently are not even required in Islam).
The truth is, I've reached the point where I'm almost afraid to go out in public and speak the words I wrote in that little box so many years ago. It's acceptable to be a Christian – as long as you are the kind who doesn't take the Bible literally, as long as you don't bother anyone else about it, as long as you know when to shut up. Once reprogrammed, you might earn the right to be assimilated into your own society or accepted back into your own town.
Susan D. Harris can be reached at www.susandharris.com.

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Timothy Birdnow

Numbers 21:28
"For a fire went forth from Heshbon, A flame from the town of Sihon; It devoured Ar of Moab, The dominant heights of the Arnon.

In yesterday's post "The Coming Day of the Sun" I expressed hopes that our government knows what it is doing at the end. North Korea's growing nuclear capabilities now give it, per the power to strike the U.S. and perhaps well beyond the loss of a city or two. What would we do? How to deter Korea and avoid any unpleasant entanglements with China or Russia?

Turns out I needn't have worried; we droppped The Mother of All Bombs to show we could take out underground nuclear sites.

The GBU43/b Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) aka the Mother of All Bombs is the most powerful non-nuclear explosive device ever created by the united States. Designed to destroy deep underground bunkers, this weapon can take out underground missile silos and research facilities as well as simple tunnels and spiderholes. (I find it ironic that the things is called MOAB, as the Moabites were destroyed utterly by the wrath of the Lord and now nothing but ruins stand where they once had flourished in the Dead Sea area.) Donald Trump's authorization to use this wicked little toy bespeaks a very keen sense of aggressive military policy, no doubt suggested by the Generals on his staff. It's why it was good Trump picked military men and not academic weenies for these positions. Trum is a man who understands the importance of personnell and personal experience.

This was the best action he could have taken outside of boots on the ground, which is NOT the optimal solution. Many people are complaining, saying they voted for Trump because he wasn't a neocon. Well, he may have kept us out of war by doing precisely what he just did. A strong response now cows the Koreans, the Russians, the Chinese, ISIS. This makes it clear we will use our extraordinary power if needs must, and if we do...

Under Obama, America was the big, soft, gentle kid the bullies kicked in the behind. Not anymore, and the whole world now knows it. Even crazy Kim has been put on notice, and he may well pull in his horns.

As for Kim Jong Un, he was speeding down a very treacherous road and had to be slowed down. He is the kind of guy who would actually pull the rigger because he has bluffed one time too many and now he has to show he means it. If you could stop a guy like that in the bluff stage you can stop him. Better yet to stop him when he has nothing to bluff with. But Obama let him run wild, and now our only option was to make this sort of demonstration to show we were serious - and then if he continues we will have to use weapons against him. MOAB shows we can get to his nuclear framework. It may hurt his pride to reduce his weapons program, but it would hurt it more to lose it all. And, as I say, if we let him complete it he will not be satisfied, and his need to keep his subjects believing in his godhead will force him to use those weapons.

A single bomb now may have saved the world. A Nork nuke could have started the Big One. This was not a neocon style New World Order type action but a warning shot across the bow of the Queen Kim's Revenge. Ronald Reagan certainly did more than this. Anyone remember when he bombed Libya, killing Khadaffi's daughter? And it worked; Kahadaffi actually became our ally, helping us in the war on terror - until Hillary, Susan Rice, and the third sister Harpie Valerie Jarrott decided to remove him and replace him with ISIS. See, Khadaffi (Ghadaffi, Quadaffi, and any other spelling you choose0 figured it was better to be a live tyrant than a dead Islamic martyr. He couldn't be reasoned with through words but bombs from the sky made a more telling point.

So Kudos to our President and his staff here. I know there are many who think this was a return to interventionism, but in my book it was a necessary action well played. Trump may well have avoided war with this one action.


Jeremiah 48:

.36 Therefore mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres: because the riches that he hath gotten are perished.
.37 For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth.
38 There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the LORD.
39 They shall howl, saying, How is it broken down! how hath Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him.

.40 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab.
41 Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the LORD.
.43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the LORD.
44 He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the LORD

45 They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
46 Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives.

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Timothy Birdnow

North Korea is threatening nuclear war. They say "the Day of the Sun" is coming.

According to Pravda

"On April 15, North Korea will celebrate the 105th anniversary since the birth of the founder of the DPRK, Kim Il Sung. This is the largest national holiday in the country, which is called the Day of the Sun. Kim Il Sung is referred to as the "Sun of the Nation" in the DPRK. In the past, North Korean leaders would test weapons on April 15.

Meanwhile, spokespeople for the South Korean Defense Ministry expressed their readiness to show resistance to "provocations of the North," which may follow in connection with the celebration of the Day of the Sun on April 15. In addition, Seoul does not exclude a possibility of either a nuclear or a missile test on the 85th anniversary of the Korean People's Army, which the North celebrates on April 25.

Reportedly, the DPRK is prepared for a new nuclear test. According to 38 North U.S.-Korea Institute, commercial satellite images of the North Korean nuclear test site in Phungeri showed activity at the northern terminal, as well as new activity in the main administrative zone and a certain number of personnel around the command center of the test site. The images were taken on April 12."

End excerpt.

Meanwhile Japan is evacuating it's citizens from South Korea as America's navy steams toward the Korean peninsula. Also, Kim Jong un-oh has ordered the evacuation of Pyongyang and told western journalists to prepare to leave the capital immediately.

Is war - perhaps even nuclear war - immanent?

North Korea has two missiles in development capable of reaching the continental United States - the Musudan and KN-14. And with nuclear warheads a high altitude blast could cause an EMP, taking down the power grid and plunging America into chaos. This would be far more effective than simply nuking a city. I chronicled the damgers of this in an American Thinker article back in 2006. Even if the attack only takes down the Western grid, it will still cause total chaos in some of our most productive areas - including silicone valley, our technological heartland, and the California farming communities, some of the most productive farms in the world. Oh, and without power there will be no water, so millions of people will be dying of thirst. Total chaos will ensue.

The American electric grid is divided into three major, largely independent interconnections; the Eastern, Texas, and Western interconnections. Power flows into the grid and is distributed throughout the entire interconnection. Occasionally power moves between the grids, but rarely. If something takes out the grid it may be possible to supply minute amounts of power to the neighboring grid, but more liikely it will remain out. That happened to the Eastern grid a few years ago, which was down for several days. Fortunatley the eastern portion of the U.S. has plenty of gravity-fed water and the weather was decent when it crashed. Not so in the west, where water is largley punped out of the ground or from far away reservoirs. A collapse in the Western Interconnection would be a national catastrophe'.

And one Nork missile could bring it down.

The u.S. could not survive a long term collapse in the Western grid. At best martial law would have to be declared nationwide and America as we know it would cease to exist.

I hope and pray our leaders know what the hell they are doing. I fear they are more worried about their personal power and fortunes than protecting the nation.

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Jack Kemp forwards this update tohis piece at the Aviary:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/whats_behind_uniteds_unfriendly_skies.html

By Monica Showalter

United Airlines' big toxic public relations dumpster fire just seems to get worse the longer it burns. What an incredible take of corporate boneheadedness.

To make room for a deadheading flight crew, a passenger was dragged off a flight kicking and screaming as rent-a-cops bloodied his face. First, the airline's executives dug in their heels and said the problem was the passenger, not their policies. Then, as their stock tanked, they finally apologized to the passenger. Then they apologized again.

By that point, the damage was done. The passenger said he was in the hospital recovering from his wounds and lawyering up. The company's market cap had skidded by $1.5 billion. The coveted Asian flight routes market was in for trouble as Chinese, Vietnamese, and other social media sites lit up with charges of racism and vows never to fly that airline. Congress was vowing to investigate. And the speed with which social media was able to transmit the hysterical incident on tape rocketed and rocketed around the world millions of times over as the company stumbled around with different responses.

To what does one attribute such pig-stupid corporate behavior in a consumer industry such as an airline? The inflexibility of the airline was mind-boggling. You'd never see Starbucks or Michaels Arts & Crafts or Amazon treat a customer like that. Except of course, airport contract workers at Starbucks – a different breed.

Airlines are full of such indignities – massive overcharges for baggage, capricious gate closings, paid carby snacks of paltry selection, insufficient overhead bin space with weak enforcement for violators, inadequate accommodation for bumped passengers (once when I was a college student, I was bumped overnight into a hotel and given no voucher for food), lost and delayed luggage (come pick it up yourself if we find it), lousy compensation for lost luggage, no accommodation for bawling babies or spillover customers from adjacent seats – and that's before you run into the tender hands of the TSA or high airport parking costs.
What is behind this? The airlines themselves, for sure, but it looks as though the worker inflexibility may be the work of outdated unions at odds with the modern world – working to letter, not my job, mac, put the customer last may be part of it. The other part is its flip-side – an out-of-touch corporate elite that finds that situation just fine, given the inability to press for better conditions. Working together, they really couldn't empathize as a company with a doctor passenger who said he needed to be at a hospital to see patients and couldn't be bumped? He was just a computer-generated random number to them, and they were determined to throw him off anyway. And it doesn't appear that they are even bothering with the technical details anymore. Whether of honoring their three-year-old pledge of assigned seats or giving passengers their bills of rights as the law requires, they are just sending in the goons.

Read the rest at American Thinker

Things got interesting in the comments section to this article where more points were brought up. When VonMisesJr related United Airline's behavior to the Patriot Act, the corporate state taking our rights, and the teachings of Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom," some people accused him of misinterpreting some history and facts. I, however, thought that he explained the growing self-importance of airport security rent-a-cops - and one I had to deal with - to these major political forces going back decades.

Here below is VonMisesJr's comment, followed by Army Aviator's comment and my own. I've left out some of the others because I wanted to concentrate on what just these three people wrote as comments.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/what_were_all_missing_from_the_united_airlines_fiasco_comments.html#disqus_thread

*
VonMisesJr replying to Schmutzli • 3 hours ago
The author is head of the local Shenandoah County Freedom Caucus but speaks like the GOP Shenandoah County Establishment that he also apparently leads. This is NOT simply a poor decision by a CEO and poor PR. It is a result of Statism and the loss of Liberty due to both Parties colluding with the Fortune 500 in a Fascist/Corporatist cabal.
G.W. Bush gave us TARP and told us that "I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system." He gave us the Patriot Act where our Bill of Rights was shredded regarding Amendments I, II, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII. This provided the ability for Obama to bailout GM stealing the Bond Holders Investments (who are second in line only behind Accounts Receivable) and give their money to the Unions to Fund their Pensions and Health Care. The Patriot Act allowed Obama to conduct surveillance on a private citizen and Campaign Volunteer Carter Page to spy on Trump and his Campaign and incoming Administration.
It was the Airport Police who beat the crap our of Dr. Dao, not the employees of United Airlines. They called in the Police because they are told that Police Power Force is to be used against anyone who disrupts. But by implementing authoritarian tactics, the government has effectively prevented people from their Amendment I Right to Petition the government. If you talk back, you get punched out.
Hayek in "The Road to Serfdom" explained that Central Planning leads to Totalitarianism. Hans-Hermann Hoppe posited that there are several steps on the way to totalitarianism (High-Tax Socialist Democracy). They follow the Bismarck model of building a Welfare State and buying votes. They "democratize" government so that many people covet government jobs with their Pensions and Benefits, and if you're lucky, you get to beat the crap out of or molest some doctor, grandma or cripple. They not only rob from the Middle Class taxing them to buy votes from the non-productive, but they also cripple SMB to create Monopolies and Mercantilism with the likes of Boeing, GE, Caterpillar, GM and United Airlines.
The Bismarck model also creates a massive Bureaucracy, so that unlike Monarchy where one can hate the cruel King, there is no target in a faceless Bureaucracy. Finally, Hoppe wrote that while Regulation does not directly benefit the Central government, it uses these myriad of Rules to stifle "We the People." He suggested that the U.S. and Britain defeated Nazi Germany and Mussolini Italy because their Regulation stifled their economy to the extent that they could not adapt to the war-time economic demands. It appears that after Bush and Obama, we have become much like the Nazi and Mussolini Fascist Bureaucracies.



ArmyAviator replying to VonMisesJr • 9 minutes ago
Otto von Bismarck was a brilliant man and was a master of human nature. While supporting the trappings of monarchy, he knew that the key to power was the people. Maintenance of the King and later Emperor in Berlin, was key to HIS power, yet as you have illustrated power centralized into one figure, such as a king can be hazardous.
Bismarck knew about Socialism and realized benefits of some Socialist principles in order to maintain good order. The revolution of 1848 was still clearly in his mind as he rose to power and assumed the Chancellorship of Prussia under William I, who was to become Emperor (Kaiser) when the German Empire was established in 1871.
Bismarck sought to rule Germany via a MASSIVE bureaucracy that he controlled. The German bureaucracy heavily regulated everyday society and while people were at time angered by bureau regulations, they did not vent their anger at either the Kaiser, or the Chancellor. Unknown bureaucrats were blamed.
Bismarck passed out free goodies to the masses in efforts to placate their poverty and station in life, in efforts to maintain power and control. This worked. High taxes and heavy regulations imposed by unknown bureaucrats kept the government in wealth and power.
The German Empire of 1871-1918, truly was a Welfare State and the "Bismarckian system" stands as the founding elements of current Liberal Socialist ideology regarding government. Yet, one must remember that Imperial Germany was nonetheless a TOTALITARIAN system of governance. The government did dole out goodies to the masses, but maintained strict control by imposing Deutsche Ordnung, or "German Order" on the very people who thought they were benefitting, by government benevolence. It proved to be a sad footnote in German history.
World War I, was fought by those masses who blindly followed the leadership of their Kaiser and his government, much to their detriment! An entire generation of men and women, was lost! This would never have been possible, had Bismarck not brought about a Welfare State that ingrained devotion to duty, so that the "bennies" would never stop! (Scroll down past the space gap to read Jack Kemp's reply)
*
JackKemp replying to VonMisesJr • 20 minutes ago
Whatever the alleged imperfections of VonMisesJr's argument, he (and the article author) have perfectly explained the cause of an incident with a rent-a-cop (police dept. reject) that happened to me after I passed through the boarding area security at LaGuardia Airport in NY City one Christmas season. I was then getting my shoes shined near the boarding gates when a minor guard started to berate me for not really celebrating the Christmas season. How he knew that I wasn't going to visit my family in another city and attend church there is beyond me. But I did give him a short, polite, and truthful answer that shut him up. I replied, "With all due respect, it's not my holiday. I'm Jewish." He had no reply for that.

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Dana Mathewson

United ain't the only one, and it's not all their fault. Everybody flies, and the skies are crowded, and there's that almighty bottom line. Service on all the airlines has gone into the dumper, and frankly I don't know who the hell's to blame. I'll give you a bit of my personal flying history, and you'll perhaps agree (if you're still awake at the end) that some things have gotten a bit better even as most of it's gotten worse.

I started flying commercially in about 1974 when I worked for a dinky company in Buffalo, NY. They always used Allegheny Airlines, the predecessor of US Air. Flying out of Buffalo International Airport, they used the BAC-111 airliner, a small twin-jet plane built in England with engines in the tail which looked like a toy version of today's popular MD-80. I can't remember the passenger capacity, maybe about 70, and their reclining seat worked by having the portion upon which you sat slide forward while the back was hinged at the top -- rather than the usual "big plane" configuration of stationary seat, tilting back. This was only important because on any given plane, about 20% of the seats didn't lock, and when you landed, you slid forward against the pull of the seatbelt. Ouch! Oh, wait. Every plane had four seats on each side configured in "club car" format, so four passengers could hold meetings. If any of the four rear-facing seats didn't lock, it was "Ouch" as you took off.

In those days, smoking was common on all flights, until they finally created the "non-smoking section:" the last four rows. Big deal! And seating wasn't reserved. If you wanted non-smoking you did what you could to get to the head of the line and get onto the plane first. On one of my flights I found out all but about three of the passengers (including myself) were French! Gasp!

On another flight, which co-incidentally was the following day, I noticed that a large number of the passengers were abnormally tall, and getting past the overly-long legs in the aisle was quite a feat. I finally realized I was on a flight with the Phoenix Suns NBA team, which had been handily beaten by the Buffalo Braves (now non-existent). If those poor guys had flown on a similar plane to Buffalo, no wonder they lost!

Allegheny evolved into US Air, which became a fine airline indeed, as I learned in my next job, because I eventually had to fly on them frequently (and my next employer let me keep my Frequent Flyer miles). This was in the 1980s and might, in retrospect, have been the Golden Age of American air travel. In, oh, probably 1985 I had to fly, along with my boss, from Buffalo to Pittsburgh, and from there to Westmoreland County Airport in Latrobe, which many of you probably know as Arnold Palmer territory. The plane we were on developed problems and we had to change planes (hey, this can happen). When we got on the second plane, it developed that the second plane was a tad smaller and was technically overloaded, so to get it down to weight, they were required by law to siphon some fuel out. US Air didn't have a pump and had to find another airline at the airport who did, and this took time. My boss, sitting about three rows in front of me, was getting annoyed (not having my relaxed sense of sang-froid), and I called up to him "Hey, Darryl, all they have to do is go up the street a mile or so [into the tough part of town] and they'll find any number of guys who'll be glad to help 'em suck gas out." I might have embarrassed my boss with that but I sure got some laughs, which was the point.

Eventually we got into the air and got to Pittsburgh, where we landed and taxied for about an hour to the gate (as any of you who have ever been at the airport there will understand). The story of the fun flying a Twin Otter commuter flight to Latrobe (and for me, they're fun) is for another day. Two days later, coming back, there were weather problems all through the "system" and there really are stories to tell -- as I said, another day. But we got home OK.

In 1987, a very interesting year for me for other reasons, I had to fly EVERY WEEK from Buffalo to Newark Airport and back, from January to October, and outside a couple of odd incidents which can't be blamed on anyone (like the time they had to change a throttle cable on the plane we were to fly to Newark), it was basically lovely. Coming home from Newark there were always two afternoon flights to Buffalo, and I was always booked onto the later of the two. If it happened that I got to the airport and got my rental car checked back in early enough, and showed up at the US Air desk in time, the agent would automatically put me on the earlier flight to Buffalo if there was room on it -- with a nice smile. In those days, luggage-checking was perfunctory, so didn't take a lot of time. The planes were clean. I remember writing a letter to the CEO of US Air complimenting him on the quality of his airline, the service, etc., and how much better it was than what it had been "back in the day."

Everyone who worked for the airline appeared to enjoy their jobs, and made sure we enjoyed our flying experience. In later years I used all those Frequent Flyer miles to fly Martha (and me) to visit her daughter in college, and occasionally to visit her family.

It ain't that nice now. In about 2000, a great friend of mine flew me down to spend some time with him in Houston, on Air Tran. Coming home, there was a huge delay getting out of the airport (Hobby Field, I believe) and although we were fervently promised our connecting flight in Atlanta would be waiting, it wasn't. We "slept" on whatever furniture was available, while the staff roared around us with propane gas-powered floor-cleaning equipment (Pew!). We complained at the service desk about the lies we'd been told and were informed, curtly, by someone I think was ex-Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's sister, that "connecting flights are never held." I got home on a flight the next morning OK but have vowed never to fly Air Tran again no matter how wonderful people tell me they are.

There are so many damn planes in the air that every one impinges on every other one. Back when Martha was working for National Energy, she had to fly to Scottsdale once, around Easter, and promptly needed gall bladder surgery (no, I'm not blaming that on the airlines). Got myself a flight to Phoenix to go see her, got on the plane at MSP and it immediately taxied to a side area where it sat for THREE HOURS, due to traffic problems in the system. It sure messed up the life of the driver Richard had hired to pick me up at Sky Harbor!

See our website at: www.danamarthamusic.com

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Dana Mathewson

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/04/12/trump-must-hang-fresno-state-vows-to-review-professors-violent-comments.html

'Trump must hang': Fresno State vows to 'review' professor's violent comments.
"To save American democracy, Trump must hang,” Fresno State University Professor Lars Maischak wrote on his Twitter account in February. "The sooner and the higher, the better.”

Sometimes I think there's such a thing as too much academic freedom.

End

A NOTE FROM JACK KEMP:

Dana, I am watching part 2 of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments today. This call for the hanging of Trump is like something Dathan, the Edward G. Robinson character in the movie version of this Passover story, would have said as he had the Golden Calf idol built.

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Dana Mathewson

Yeah, guys, I know we're getting a tad tired of hearing The Hag's excuses. But I still like hearing them dissected this well. Bozell is an expert.

https://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2017/04/12/hillary-blames-selfhating-women-for-her-loss-n2312212?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Now wait a minute. Wasn't she blaming MEN the other day? At this conference she's blaming self-hating women. Well, I just wonder if she'll ever get around to blaming Hillary-hating men and women?

The comments are fun to read, too.

See our website at: www.danamarthamusic.com

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Timothy Birdnow

Pee Wee Ryan is an open borders guy, and a whore for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which wants an unlimited supply of cheap labor no matter the cultural damage done to this nation. Well, now the Speaker of the House of Representatives and host of Pee Wee's Playhouse, er, Wisconsin Republican (E) is promising not to fund a border wall.

According to CBS News:

"Speaker Paul Ryan is vowing that Congress won’t let the federal government shut down at the end of April and says lawmakers will pass a package that will fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year, through September.

"We’re not gonna have a government shutdown,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview that aired Thursday with"CBS This Morning” host Norah O’Donnell. "The president doesn’t want to have a government shutdown. It’s funding the government from April 28 to September 30.”

Congress must pass a new spending package by April 28 or the government will shut down. Last year, lawmakers twice delayed the passage of 2017 funding in order to give the Trump White House more control over spending levels. The government is currently running on funding from fiscal 2016, which ended last September.

Ryan suggested that Congress won’t fulfill the Trump administration’s request for additional money for the Department of Homeland Security for the border wall for this year, though he said there will be funding for border security. "

End excerpt.

I have a question for Squeaker Ryan; what if President Trump vetoes your spending bill? Remember, Congress always gets blamed for government shutdowns, according to the thinking among Congressional GOP who were furious at Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for the last shutdown. If Congress takes the blame, then why shouldn't Trump veto the legislation? HE'll come out just fine, won't he? You on the other hand...

If Ryan proposed the funding he could let the Democrats kill it by shutting down the government and letting them take the blame. So he is either politically obtuse or he is pushing his own views that America is a nation where laws don't matter and the almighty dollar is the purpose of our existence. Ryan pushed for a Gang of Eight style amnesty just a couple of years ago and leading Democrats believed he would give them amnesty after Hillary was elected. Of course the Democrats want amnesty to create millions of new Democratic voters so they can take over the country permanently, and Ryan is happy to give it to them provided he can keep the donations flowing from the Chamber of Commerce and other pro-amnesty bloodsuckers.

As far as I'm concerned, a man who would sell out his country for thirty pieces of silver is a traitor. We know Dems are, but so much worse are Republicans who don't care to maintain American culture and civilization because it is profitable to destroy it, despite what the general public wishes.

It's why Trump was elected; a majority of Americans wanted someone from outside the corrupt system, and Trump's promise to build a wall was perhaps THE defining issue of his candidacy. Despite this, despite the facts that Americans don't want this continued invasion, Paul Ryan continues with business as usual. It's why the GOP is loathed in middle America.

So Trump should make it plain to Mr. Ryan that he will veto any bill not containing border wall funding. Let's see Squeaker Ryan shut down the government on his own party's president.

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Jack Kemp

http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/if-tesla-is-worth-more-than-gm-why-are-taxpayers-still-subsidizing-it/
If Tesla Is Worth More Than GM, Why Are Taxpayers subsidizing it?

Motor City: The big news in the auto world was that Tesla (TSLA) topped the market value of General Motors (GM). That means the car company that gets massive taxpayer subsidies is now worth more than the car company taxpayers bailed out a few years ago. Welcome to the world of crony capitalism.

On Monday, Tesla's stock closed at $312.39, which meant the startup electric car company, which sold a grand total of fewer than 80,000 cars last year, was worth more than GM, which sold 80,000 Chevy Silverados every eight weeks. (Tesla's market cap edged below GM's on Tuesday.)

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Jack Kemp

You've probably seen the recent news story about the United Airlines passenger, a doctor, who was forcibly removed and beaten when his flight became overbooked because the airline had to give the seats to a four person, traveling United air crew. See  http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/united-airlines-forcibly-removes-passenger-from-flight-video-w475977

There have been other civilian passenger abuses by United, including a teenage girl with autism, along with her mother, kicked off of a United flight. http://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-claims-daughter-autism-kicked-off-united-airlines/story?id=30926832

But I want to focus on United's abuse of military veteran passengers with PTSD and physical ailments. One example is that of a Marine Lance Corporal in a wheelchair in 2012. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/14/christian-brown-disabled-marine-delta-airlines-_n_2303358.html

Probably the most famous case of this happening was the poor treatment of the Army veteran and Paws and Stripes spokesman Jim Stanek also being mistreated by United Airlines in 2012. (See article below). The Youtube video he made after that incident went viral with over one million views. Stanek later starred in the A&E cable tv miniseries "Dogs fo War."

All of these (except for the autistic teenager story) airline mistreatment incidents happened with United Airlines at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Ironically, the airport is named after a WWII U.S. Navy pilot who received The Congressional Medal of Honor. It seems that this very bad behavior by United (and other) Airlines has finally reached a point where the public is taking notice and creating a backlash. For openers, the CEO of United gave a half hearted apology for this latest outrage and United Airlines stock plunged three points on Tuesday morning but recovered to "only" a one point loss by the end of the day. I suspect many Americans are chosing to cancel their flights and book with other airlines rather than flying the "unfriendly skies" of United. I suspect this is only the beginning of the backlash against United, a backlash involving both military veterans and civilians.

Here is an excerpt from an article on the famous 2012 incident at O'Hare involving a veteran and his service dog:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176900/Disabled-veteran-says-United-Airlines-staff-kicked-service-dog-asked-retarded-delays-forced-spend-THREE-days-airport.html

Disabled veteran says United Airlines staff kicked his service dog and asked if he was retarded as delays forced him to spend THREE days at the airport

ByLaura Cox for the Daily Mail

Published: 10:39 EDT, 21 July 2012 | Updated: 00:29 EDT, 22 July 2012

A disabled veteran and his service dog were abused by United Airlines staff, he has claimed.

Jim Stanek, a three-tour Iraq veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, said employees of the airline kicked his dog, Sarge, and asked him if he was retarded.

In a YouTube video (NOTE: it is no longer available) the Paws and Stripes founder describes his ordeal which began on July 16 at Dulles International Airport in Washington.

Persistent delays to Stanek's flight home forced him to spend two nights in hotels, running low on medication and on food for Sarge.

During what he calls his 'nightmare' two separate staff members kicked Sarge, later claiming to have been 'startled' by her presence.

Stanek says he repeatedly asked if someone would help him after hearing about the delays but was brushed aside. 'I was in a lot of pain, physically mentally and emotionally at that point.

'I couldn't get any help and that was the most disconcerting thing about it.'

At one point, having sought assistance from a customer service adviser with reading a booking confirmation email Stanek was asked: 'Are you retarded?'

'I completely lost all composure at that point,' he says. 'I started yelling, I used four letter words which I really try hard not to do.

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Dana Mathewson

The Townhall site gives us a wonderful lineup of columnists. None better, in my estimation, than Paul Greenburg, who gives us this splendid appreciation of Passover, which starts tonight.

Tonight we quit Egypt at last, and strike out for the Promised Land. It's the first night of Passover, the first night of freedom.

We Americans know what freedom is. It's one long Fourth of July party, complete with hot dogs, apple pie and a brass band playing "Yankee Doodle Dandy."

Tonight is another celebration of freedom, and quite a party it is, what with white tablecloths, festive bottles of wine for the required four toasts, crispy matzo we haven't tasted for a whole year, family stories of Passovers past, strange-tasting foods reserved for this special night.

The old story will be retold in response to the simplest of questions, which is to be asked by the youngest child at the table: "Why is this night different from all other nights?"

Then the towering, thunder-and-lightning, awe-filled Book of Exodus will be transmuted into answers fit for children of all ages -- a fairy tale told in song and story, capped by a great scavenger hunt at the end of the evening for the last crumb of sanctified matzo needed to properly complete the magical evening.

A good time will be had by all. That's what freedom is all about, isn't it?

No. Because at some point during the evening, reality will dawn. It's a different point for different people. For some the realization will come early, for others late, for still others never at all.

A secret: There is no promised land. There is only slavery or the wilderness, and the eternal moment of choice between them. That is freedom, nothing more. And yet it is all.

One night of the year, we are summoned to break out of the everyday and make our choice. Pharaoh's army is forever gaining on us. There is nothing for it but to plunge into the roaring sea. Freedom is no party. It is a leap of faith.

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Timothy Birdnow

I go now to bury my mother.

She died late last week, the result of a massive heart attack. She had been sick for years, suffering the lingering effects of a pair of strokes that left reduced her mobility and caused her memory loss. Her health had been slowly but steadily declining over the years, and she fell down about three weeks ago and broke her hip.

the hip repladement somehow came detached (the top part from the lower) and she was in great pain. after a week the rehab center sent her back to the hospital, where they were able to manipulate it back into place, but by then her health had declined precipitously and she suffered a massive heart attack. The doctor himself called me to tell me to get out right away.

But she fooled them all, living another three days in the hospice before passing on. I was at her bedside when she breathed her last.

The visitation was held last night, and a larger crowd than I expected showed up (octogenarians rarely have a lot of people at their funerals, especially ones with smaller families as is ours.) Hers was a suitably lively wake, a tribute to how well loved she truly was. Couple that with a really wild memorial going on in another room of the funeral home (the parking lot was full of people TAILGATING as if a high school football game had just ended) and we had a pretty lively affair.

My mother was a delightful person. Bubbly, fun-loving, and warm, she had a bevy of beaus chasing her about before my father won her at the tender age of 24. She had attended the same college that my brother and I would later attend (Saint Louis University) and she went on to become an elementary school teacher in an impoverished suburb of St. Louis called Granite City. Granite City was a mill town where migrants from Appalachia settled to work in the steel mills. Her kids were poor, sometimes showing up to school without shoes and whatnot and she often had to help them out of her own pocket.. After becoming pregnant with my oldest brother she was forced to resign and became a stay-at-home mom. Later she would return to teaching at a Catholic school, and it is out of that very parish that she will not receive her final rites from Holy Mother Church.. Strange how things have come full circle.

She was the reason my father became a Catholic. He had been an indifferent Methodist until my mother led him by example, and so he converted to Catholicism when I was a boy. He received his Confirmation just before I did, and acted as my sponsor even when I was confirmed! That was ultimately my mother's doing.

She had a great enjoyment of life, too, and she and my father used to go out regularly - to festivals, to parties, to bars and restaurants. She loved the nightlife and enjoyed herself fully. My friends loved her, and my parents would come to fun events like the Strassenfest (a German street festival) where they would dance and enjoy beer or sausages or whatnot - even into their 70's. They never missed a St. Patrick's Day parade. In fact, my good friend's daughter invited my parents to her wedding (the only such invitation issued) because she had grown up enjoying their company at the St. Pats parade so much! People loved how much my mother enjoyed life when she could.

And she was a fine singer who enjoyed being in shows and plays and whatnot. She even dabbled in it professionally on occasion, having done a few gigs where she was paid. But that wasn't the point; she loved to take the stage and grab a a microphone and sing for the sheer joy of it. Up until the end she would go to a piano bar and sing some old tune. She loved Cole Porter (and we are going to have Begin the Beguine played at her funeral as per her request) and would belt out a Porter tune at The Hideaway, their regular haunt. And that went on until she was in her 70's! When we were younger she was the belle of the ball at our grade school where they put on shows, and she was active in the parent's shows at my high school.

She also loved to travel, and my parents used to drive all over the country in their rather dilapidated old clunker cars. I mean everywhere; they loved the traveling, not the destination, and saw every back road in the country. But her fondest dream was to go to Europe, a dream she finally realized later in life.

As I say, she was a delightful person.

Not that she was without her faults. She was late to everything and we said she would be late to her own funeral. Her death several days after they called it was right in character. She was also very slow and methodical, something that drove my father crazy at times and now is the source of his greatest pain; he misses it. If she did a job she did it to perfection which meant she did it slowly. Her penmanship was picture perfect, but it took her forever to write anything. She was also a packrat and in later life turned into a terrible horder; she couldn't bear to throw anything away. Even when she was younger she washed paper plates (if they were the nicer kind) and plastic utensils. But when you needed something she would dip into her stockpile and find whateever you were seeking somewhere in the clutter.

Now she is gone. Today is the day we say our final farewell.

Her only brother passed away almost exactly one year ago. Now she joins him.

So I am off now to put my mother to rest. Interesting that it should be at the beginning of Holy Week, the celebration of Christ's death and resurrection. I find comfort in that.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 06:16 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Dana Mathewson

Obviously, the town is not, and was never, the hellhole the MSM made it out to be.

https://spectator.org/ferguson-the-town-that-george-soros-couldnt-shut-down/

A NOTE FROM TIM:

I grew up near Ferguson and it is not. It is essentially a college town, just a few miles from the University of Missouri St. Louis. It has some big, beautiful older homes and was a very up-and-coming community as young people began moving back in and rehabbing those lovely old homes. When plans were made to expand the airport (plans since abandoned) the historical black community of Kinloch was bought out and the residents moved en masse to Ferguson, which flipped the demographic. It had been around 70% white in 2000 and by 2010 was 65% black (roughly). Needless to say, the political structure had not yet changed, as this shift occured in a matter of a couple of years.

Kinloch was always a crime riddled hellhole. The Kinlochians who settled in Ferguson were also not happy about being forced to move there, and between crime and anger the Canfield apartments add other such heavily consentrated areas became a powderkeg. Ferguson wasn't the problem; disbanding Kinloch and moving it into Ferguson was.

And it's still a nice place, although the people who bought houses there have lost a lot of value. But it will come back.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:11 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Paul Driessen

Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has a tough job, especially with so many Green and Obama ideologues burrowed deep into his department. However, he and his immediate staff let a clever environmentalist ploy slip past them. By allowing the US Fish & Wildlife Service to finalize a last-minute Obama FWS rule designating the rusty patched bumblebee as an endangered species, they may have unleashed an onslaught of radical actions to delay, block or bankrupt numerous infrastructure, development, agricultural and other projects across hundreds of millions of acres in the Northeast, Midwest and beyond.

My article details the scope of the problem, and outlines what Interior and Congress can and should do now to keep the problem from getting worse.

Off to a bumbling start at Interior

If this is the kind of housecleaning and swamp draining we’re going to get, we’re in real trouble

Paul Driessen

Was it because there were too few senior Trump Administration officials in place to catch and stop it? Or because Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was new on the job, and had so much on his plate, that this decision just slipped right past him?

Maybe it was because the new Administration faces so many battles with environmental activists already that it didn’t want another one? Or perhaps Interior was intimidated by environmentalist lawsuits challenging President Trump’s 60-day delay of newly-issued Obama Administration regulations?

Whatever the reason, Trump’s Interior Department opened a real can of worms when it let the Obama Administration’s last-minute endangered species designation for the rusty patched bumblebee (RPB) take effect March 21 – exactly 60 days after President Trump issued his regulatory Executive Order.

The designation has serious adverse implications for Mr. Trump’s ambitious plans for infrastructure improvements, economic growth, job creation, and reining in regulatory abuse and overreach.

Already, officials in the Minneapolis area have delayed a road construction project – purportedly near a patch of potential RPB habitat – while they look for signs that the bees are actually nesting there. Another Minnesota group is trying to use hypothetical threats to RPBs to delay construction of a wastewater treatment plant that would prevent pollution from reaching sensitive state waterways!

And this is just the beginning. It will happen again and again as anti-development agitators use this designation to theorize that construction projects and even farming operations could risk harming an "endangered” bee species or its possible habitats.

In issuing the "endangered” designation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) advised that "The rusty patched bumblebee is likely to be present in scattered locations that cover only 0.1% of the species’ historical range.” Thus, government agencies need only be consulted or issue a permit for developers to "take” (disturb, harm or kill) the bees in these limited areas.

However, 0.1% of the RPB’s historic range is still an area of roughly 6,000 square miles: 3.8 million acres – equivalent to all of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. And that’s just the beginning.

The real kicker is that no one knows where that 0.1% area might be, scattered in tiny bits and pieces all across the 13 Northeast and Midwest states where the rusty patched bumblebee has supposedly been observed (by amateur entomologists) since 2000. That’s 378 million acres: equal to the combined land area of Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana!

That’s partly because the Obama FWS issued the endangered species designation without developing any protocols for actually identifying the ground-dwelling bee’s nesting sites. They could be anywhere in that 13-state area – which means environmentalists could delay, block or bankrupt every new power line, bridge, highway, pipeline, housing development, plowing operation or other project in the affected states.

The decision gives eco-obstructionists another powerful weapon against projects they oppose. They’ve already proven they are smart, determined, coordinated, well-funded opponents of President Trump’s infrastructure, energy, job and economic improvement agendas. Why give them more power?

Even worse, this insect designation opens the floodgates. Whether Secretary Zinke realizes it or not, waiting in the obstructionist wings, right behind the rusty patched bumblebee, are two more bumblebee species whose potential habitats spread across 40 states. The yellow-banded bumblebee has been found all the way from Montana east to New England, and down the Atlantic coast to Virginia, West Virginia and North Carolina. The western bumblebee’s range includes the entire block of eleven western states plus parts of Alaska: nearly a billion acres.

Put together, we’re talking about nearly half of the United States!

That’s a monstrous new complication for property owners, states and communities – and for the Trump Administration’s economic plans – at the end of a long, painful decade of economic doldrums that require concerted efforts to get job and economic growth back on track. And there’s even more to come.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says over one-fourth of 47 native North American bumblebee species face possible extinction. Other radical greens now claim hundreds of wild bee species are "threatened with” or "headed for” extinction. The Center for Biological Diversity asserts that 749 wild bee species are in decline, and half of them face serious risk of extinction.

Real entomologists dispute this. A recent article notes that the CBD report was not peer-reviewed and presented no methodologies or data sources. It quotes Sam Droege, one of North America’s top wild bee experts, who calls the report "extremely misleading” and full of "statistical, taxonomic and natural history problems.” Assertions that some species are in decline are simply false and not based on any evidence, Droege explained. For other species, there simply is not enough data to make any accurate assessment.

This is the Pandora’s box that Secretary Zinke’s Department of the Interior has unleashed, by failing to keep a lid on the FWS actions or review the Obama Administration’s politically motivated, hurry-up designation. In fact, Zinke’s department had ample reason to revise the rusty patched bumblebee designation on January 9, when Team Obama announced its plans. The DOI just bumbled it.

When the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation originally petitioned the FWS for an RPB endangered species designation, it said the species’ decline was due to habitat loss and disease – specifically an intestinal parasite that was accidentally imported to the USA from Europe in the 1990s, during experiments on managed bumblebee hives. But Obama’s FWS arbitrarily contorted its justifications to blame pesticides (specifically advanced-technology neonicotinoid pesticides, a key target du jour of the Environmental Left) for the bee’s decline. There is virtually no evidence to support that.

"The exact cause for the loss of the rusty patched is unclear,” says University of Virginia biology professor T’ai Roulston, "but it’s almost certainly related to disease: the Nosema bombi fungal gut parasite, which can shorten the lives of worker bees and disrupt mating success and survival of queens and males.”

Even more absurd and outrageous, the same Obama USFWS has given wind turbine companies permits to kill hundreds of bald and golden eagles – and thousands of raptors, other birds and bats, many of them threatened or endangered – every year for the next 30 years. So now the mere possibility that insect species could inhabit tiny areas across hundreds of millions of acres can be used to shut down projects, but the FWS will ignore wind turbines that are "incidentally” or "accidentally” killing eagles.

Now that Secretary Zinke has let the rusty patched bumblebee endangered species designation take effect, what should he do? To paraphrase the physician’s oath, "First, do no more harm.”

The new Interior team needs to make doubly sure that no more of these dubious "endangered species” designations slip past them, especially when the less onerous and disruptive, but still protective, status of "threatened species” is available. Secretary Zinke should also take a long, hard look at the supposed justifications for the RPB’s endangered designation, and modify or reverse it as warranted. Terminating or "clean-desking” a few Fish & Wildlife ideologues and IED makers would also be in order.

Meanwhile, the House and Senate should evaluate this designation and its employment, economic and land use implications, pass a "joint resolution of disapproval” under the Congressional Review Act, and send it to the White House. President Trump should sign it forthwith, and support one more vital action.

In the hands of agitators, ideological bureaucrats and friendly judges, the Endangered Species Act has become a powerful weapon for controlling land use and obstructing projects. Reforming the act, to curb this kind of nonsense and abuse, would be a good next step once these immediate problems are fixed.

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Dana Mathewson

https://townhall.com/columnists/arthurschaper/2017/04/06/confirm-gorsuch-repeal-the-filibuster-judicial-review-and-judicial-tyranny-forever-n2309543?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

So, here's the way out of these judicial nominee landmines:

1. Repeal the filibuster. It is, after all, the Constitutional Option

2. Confirm Gorusch [Done!]

3. Undo the Marbury v. Madison legacy of judicial review

4. Repeal the 17th Amendment, and give back the U.S. Senate to the states, and restore the power of state legislatures to elect U.S. Senators. [I've liked this idea for some time!]

Not easy, granted. But I think that Trump is ready to lead this iconoclastic agenda for the greater good of the country, and id 2018 turns out as I expect it to, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives will step closer to stable supermajorities (with the few remaining common-sense Democrats) to fix these underlying problems.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Timothy Birdnow

According to the U.K. Daily Mail Crowdstrike, the cyber security firm hired by the Democrats to conclude that Russia "hacked" the election and denying Hillary her birthright, is coming under fire.

From the article:

"But now the first expert company to make a link between the DNC hacks and the Kremlin is facing a damaging series of questions over its credibility, DailyMail.com can disclose.

Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has had to retract portions of a report supporting its allegations of Russian cyberattacks – and is also refusing to address Congress about its findings on Moscow's election hacking.

CrowdStrike was hired by the Democratic National Committee to investigate suspicious network activity last May. In June it declared that the committee had been hacked by the Russian government, starting a firestorm over the campaign.

CrowdStrike, based in Irvine, California, is also the only group that the DNC allowed to directly examine its servers.

Not even the FBI has been granted access to the servers."

End excerpt.

Get that? The "concensus" report by national security agencies was all based on the Crowdstrike report, meaning that if the Democrats hired Crowdstrike to make certain findings then we have no way of knowing if it is true or not. It is rather like a suspect of a crime supplying all the forensic reports to the Court.

The Daily Mail continues:

"DailyMail.com can disclose that in March CrowdStrike quietly retracted portions of a December report that had made further Russian hacking claims, after the firm was found to have relied on inaccurate data posted online by a pro-Putin 'propaganda' blogger.

The errors prompted both the Ukrainian military and a prominent British think tank to issue public statements disputing CrowdStrike's data.

The errors, and retraction, surrounded a report in December which claimed that Fancy Bear, the same Russian hackers it said were behind the DNC attacks, were working on behalf of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU.

CrowdStrike said it found evidence that Fancy Bear had also hacked into Ukrainian military technology using the same software it used to infiltrate the DNC.

According to the report, the hackers were targeting an app used by Ukrainian soldiers to improve the efficiency of ther 122mm howitzers. The hack resulted in Ukraine losing 80 percent of these weapons in its ongoing low-level battle with Russian forces in the east of the country, the report said.

The report received widespread attention, including from NBC News, Foreign Policy, and The Guardian."

End excerpt.

Even an incompetent investigator knows enough to demand to examine the evidence himself, rather than relying on a for profit company hired by the claimant. As this has had serious domestic and national security implications, the F.B.I. was more than duty bound to make it's own inquiries. That it did not shows that this whole story is as legitimate as the million dollar bill someone tried to pass a number of years ago.

The Democrats strategy is to deligitimize Donald Trump any way they can. Claiming the Russians stole the election for Trump (something that makes no sense as trump is by far the more aggressive of the two candidates and he wants cheap oil and gas - something that would destroy the Russian economy) goes a long way to marginalizing the winner of last November's election. (Hillary actually made huge amounts of money from the Russians by brokering a deal for a Russian controlled Canadian company to buy a quarter of all American uranium in return for a hefty donation to the Clinton Foundation.)

An old saw for mystery novel fans is that a case against someone is built on three legs - means, motive, and opportunity. The Democrats clearly have motive. They also have the means. We can now see that, thanks to the lazy or dishonest American security apparatus, the so-called "deep state" of Obama quislings - we now see they had opportunity as well. This whole Russian hack business is as phony as Potemkin's false front village.

He who pays the bills is the boss. The Democrats hired a private company and kept the F.b.I. and C.I.A. out of the loop for a reason. They prefered to spend their own money on this than turn it over to a better funded and more capable U.S. government agency. Why? It's almost as if they didn't want the truth to come out.

Seems to me that served their purposes just fine.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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