Well, well, well…

The mainstream press are frothing over remarks Trump made to the annual Boy Scout Jamboree (even going so far as to compare the Scouts to the Hitler Youth).  All the vapors over Trump making political remarks at the venue don’t mean much coming from the Left, which has politicized absolutely everything already.

Meanwhile, someone intimately involved with the Democratic National Committee’s information technology management has just been arrested:

A House IT aide working for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), the former Democratic National Committee chairwoman, was arrested this week on bank fraud charges while trying to leave the country.

Fox News reported that Imran Awan was arrested Monday night at Dulles International Airport in Virginia about 30 miles outside Washington, D.C.

Awan was charged with bank fraud, and it appears there are reasons to believe he overcharged House members for IT management (What? contractors overcharging?  I’m shocked — shocked I tell you!).  But there’s much more to this story:

FBI agents seized smashed computer hard drives from the home of Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s information technology (IT) administrator, according to an individual who was interviewed by Bureau investigators in the case and a high level congressional source.

Pakistani-born Imran Awan, long-time right-hand IT aide to the former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman, has since desperately tried to get the hard drives back, the individual told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group.

Awan first came to notice during the so-called “hacking” of the DNC’s computers, and the simultaneous revelations of Her Hillariness’ personal computer server to avoid official documentation requirements:

The laptop was taken by police following a report into data breaches inside congressional offices in Washington. Politico first reported that one staffer under investigation for the theft had worked for multiple Democrats in Washington, but had been fired after the alleged IT breaches. . . . The Capitol Police and other agencies are investigating Imran Awan, who has run technology for Wasserman Schultz since 2005. He was banned from the House network in February on suspicion of data breaches and theft.

And for some reason, Rep. Schultz was pretty aggressive in trying to get that laptop back from investigators:

Instead of following the “leaks du jour,” which are essentially quibbles and diversions meant to defend the Bifactional Ruling Party from Trump and the Deplorable Outsiders, it’s time the Justice Department and the media take a good hard look at all the smoking guns laying around Hillary and her hacks over the last year. I suspect that lack of focus is the main ingredient in Trump’s alleged dissatisfaction with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  As an aside, someone really needs to explain why FIVE Pakistani nationals were working on Congressional IT systems!  I happen to know a few Pakistanis, and as individuals they can be lovely people.  But hiring computer support from that nation — known to be inseparable from many radical Islamic groups and very good in the intelligence business — seems highly irresponsible.

It really is time to drain the swamp in D.C. and see who’s exposed when the sewage recedes.

Quote of the week

“The law is on Donald Trump’s side. Doesn’t mean that the courts will follow it.”

I’ve noted on several occasions the increasing disregard for law, when it comes to seeking political advantage.  Now we have a judge in Washington who thinks he can set immigration policy for the nation (legislate from the bench much?), and the kooky 9th Circus Circuit Court backing him up.

Given that the Supreme Court is evenly divided, 4-4 with a vacant seat the Democrats will do all they can to keep vacant, it appears the pressure cooker has been turned on.

Despite the attempt to politicize even the Super Bowl to jerk emotions in favor of illegal immigration, a majority of Americans believe in what the Trump administration is trying to do.  That’s why he was elected.

The more the Democrats and their accessories in the judiciary attempt to stop Trump, the more people are going to realize we are anything BUT “one nation,” much less “under God.”  (I keep waiting for one of my students to realize when we say the pledge in the morning I never say the word “indivisible.”  Not only do I believe it’s inappropriate; it’s also factually wrong, even from the beginning of the country.)

As this pressure cooker continues to gain steam, it may be the best solution is to encourage the nascent secession movement in California (see… it’s only wrong when southern states try it…), and encourage them to take Washington and Oregon with them.  It should be clear by now this nation is headed for a divorce.  Better to do it peacefully than via bloody contest.  Once separate, we can see whose worldview leads to prosperity, and whose leads to poverty and bondage.

And maybe — just maybe — we can see the restoration of the rule of law.

Quote of the day

“… if Americans increasingly find it intolerable that their political opponents control the government, that’s because government controls too much.”  — Glenn Reynolds

Not only does government control too much; it’s been increasingly ‘weaponized’ by both parties while in power, such that it can bully and harass political opponents.  This dangerous process has been going on for some time.  Obama just dialed it up to 11.  That led to this observation on Twitter, regarding how Democrats must feel now that the IRS and other agencies have a history of “punching back twice as hard:”

(Note: “TFW” is internet shorthand for “That feeling when…”)

The true measure of Donald Trump’s success will be if the next election doesn’t feel as if everything in life depends on it, or that one side can then flaunt the law at will.  This should never be the case.

THIS is the point!

Since the election, we’ve been hearing that the Ruskies are behind all the leaked emails, possibly through a nefarious agent like Wikileaks.  The Clintons’ dirty laundry, along with that of many supporters, was hung on a line for all the world to see.

But despite all the outrage over “who let the e-mails out,” I’ve yet to see a denial that they are authentic.  And if they are, WHAT they contain is far more important that WHO obtained them.  I wonder why more of us aren’t talking about THAT.

Remember: when the Establishment wants to clean up a leak and distract the public, they beat the war drums and blame domestic problems on foreign governments.  Frankly, if Russia DID have something to do with this, America may owe them one for showing just how thoroughly and completely our system has rotted.

Herding the mainstream press

The legacy corporate media is docile, controlled, manipulated, complacent, and utterly useless for anyone who believes the role of a free press is to hold those in power accountable (except for destroying the occasional Republican in order to maintain the facade).  That the New York Times would publish a piece that shows this so well only goes to demonstrate our ruling class believes they can do whatever they wish with impunity — and even laugh amongst themselves about how they sell their lies to a gullible press and public.

Like Obama, Rhodes is a storyteller who uses a writer’s tools to advance an agenda that is packaged as politics but is often quite personal. He is adept at constructing overarching plotlines with heroes and villains, their conflicts and motivations supported by flurries of carefully chosen adjectives, quotations and leaks from named and unnamed senior officials. He is the master shaper and retailer of Obama’s foreign-policy narratives, at a time when the killer wave of social media has washed away the sand castles of the traditional press.

As Rhodes admits, it’s not that hard to shape the narrative. “All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” Rhodes said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”

Note that this individual, whose incredible level of foreign policy influence in the administration the piece makes clear, has absolutely zero background in that area.  No service in the State Department.  No military background.  Not even formal studies in international relations.  Instead, he holds a masters degree in fictional writing.

With a novelist charting policy and a young, D.C.-based press corps taking his view as gospel for their reporting, is it any wonder what was left of the Pax Americana has crumbled beyond recognition in recent years?

This shouldn’t be all that surprising since the current president himself was not elected based on any accomplishments or background.  No, the election of “The One” was itself a narrative of how America was going to atone for its past sins by finally putting a black man in the Oval Office.  Incredibly, in the face of eight years of economic stagnation, foreign policy missteps and retreats, broken relationships with long-standing international partners and passage of an Obamacare medical mess that increasingly resembles a Potemkin village, the nation’s chattering classes still want us to believe we did a good thing in 2008! (Incidentally, the same voices assure us that Hillary’s potential to be the first female president is more significant that all the swirling questions about corruption, influence peddling and neglect of national security information she’s accumulated in the past quarter century.  As the saying goes: “fool me once…”)

If you want to know what’s really going on these days, the last places you should be getting your information is a government spokesperson — or the legacy media.  The latter is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the ever-growing Leviathan that is Washington, D.C.

The hypocrisy inherent in the system

In which an excellent point in made:

Here’s my conundrum: if it is immoral, even criminal or civilly liable for these mom-and-pop Christian businesses to deny services based on their fundamental beliefs, why is it not also immoral or legally actionable for large corporations to refuse their services to the citizens of those states where those who govern choose to pass legislation to protect the religious freedoms of their citizenry?

If I’m a huge professional football fan living in Atlanta and the NFL people remove my city from contention for a near-future Super Bowl because they feel my state is discriminating against the transgendered, am I not the victim of discriminatory business practices on the part of the NFL? What about those organizations and corporations that cancel annual conferences and business meetings because of the actions of my state legislature? Aren’t these big corporations refusing to do business with my state simply because they consider our practices immoral, just as those bakeries, florists, and photographers see gays as immoral? Other than scale, I see little difference.  (emphasis added)

The difference is that corporations that have succumbed to the ‘social justice’ imperative see nothing wrong with using their economic clout (or the heavy hand of the legal system) to bludgeon entire communities into abandoning their deeply held beliefs (not to mention the now not-so-common sense), while those same social justice warriors recoil in horror at the thought of a traditionalist saying or doing something that might simply be offensive to someone else.  Remember, for these people it’s all about “my widdle feewings,” not good business practice, economic sense or even a firm grasp on reality.  If the shareholders of PayPal and other companies jumping on the anti-North Carolina bandwagon had any sense, they’d demand the resignation of the corporate board for putting showmanship and social engineering above legitimate business interest.

The hypocrisy is even more pronounced when you consider how many of these virtue-signaling companies have no qualms at all doing business with places like Saudi Arabia, where being gay isn’t just occasionally inconvenient because of differences in belief — it’s often fatal.

Here’s hoping the various boycotts produce an environment in which alternatives to these would-be corporate bullies can flourish.  Such alternatives are long overdue.  Boycotts can work both ways, after all, and let’s hand it to Esquire for compiling a list of companies (and largely past-their-prime entertainers) conservatives should be breaking their ties with.

(Hat tip: Instapundit)

Just die already, GOP

That’s a post title I couldn’t have imagined writing a decade ago, despite the misgivings I was having about our bi-factional ruling party even back then.  But watching the slow-motion thrashing of the establishment GOP in response to a real, grassroots populist rebellion against their utter failures to live up to their own brand is just sickening.  (Note: I’m of the opinion that much of Trump’s support is not so much an endorsement of the man himself as it is a substantial number of the rank and file seeing an opportunity to finally stick a much-deserved finger in the eye of the GOP insider elite.  The anger out there is both real and justified.)

The insiders’ true colors are now showing, and it’s quite ugly.  In case you thought our ruling class even pretended to acknowledge the will of the voters, this videoclip should put that myth to rest.  Excerpt:

Curly Haugland, Republican National Committee Member: “The media has created a perception that the voters will decide the nomination.  …  The political parties choose their nominees, not the general public.”

When asked by the reporter “then why bother holding primaries?” his response:

“That’s a good question.”

That kind of attitude is exactly what has so much of the GOP’s nominal base up in arms.  For years citizens who care passionately about our nation’s future have organized, rallied, donated, campaigned and otherwise given of themselves to try to elect representatives and officials who will implement the policies they believe in.  And they’ve been soundly disappointed time and again, as officials “grow” in office or otherwise compromise on the very issues where their constituents expected them to stand firm.  But rather than figure out how to reconnect with that base by actually changing course, the elites are simply out to reassert their partisan a-thor-i-TIE by any means necessary.  I suspect that will include shenanigans at the convention, even if Trump wins an outright majority of delegates before then.  It’s certainly happened before when a substantial number of voters supported a candidate the insiders didn’t like.

And at that point, whether you support Trump or not, the only conclusion that can be reached is that the GOP has lost every bit of its legitimacy — first by governing differently than they promised, and then by ignoring the voters when they try to hold the party to account.  I would not be surprised if things got extremely nasty in this country after that.  After all, when the people are convinced ballots no longer matter, they will find other ways to express their displeasure at those who continue to put the screws to them.