Meanwhile, In The Federal Courts System...

...While you were watching Gordon Sondland, Trump flipped the 11th Circuit (from Legal Insurrection):

Even as the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday heard crucial testimony from pivotal witness Gordon Sondland, the Senate voted to confirm Trump’s latest appointee to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a regional appeals court handling cases from Georgia, Alabama and Florida.

The action represented a new milestone in Trump’s dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary, with Republican-appointed judges now in the majority in the 11th Circuit, whose majority before Trump took office in January 2017 had been Democratic appointees. Republican-appointed justices tend to be conservative, while Democratic-named judges tend to be liberal.

This marks the third time that Trump has been able to engineer the ideological “flip” of one of the nation’s 13 federal appeals courts, which exert considerable power one level below the U.S. Supreme Court. The other two to “flip” were the Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit and the Philadelphia-based 3th Circuit, both of which also had Democratic-appointed majorities when Trump became president.

From Reuters:

WINNING!

It's Time To Impeach Adam Schiff

For this little stunt upon opening the impeachment inquire at the House Intelligence Committee:

For three years now, Democrats have threatened to impeach President Trump for not taking seriously enough the efforts by foreign governments to meddle in our 2016 elections.

Then evidence surfaces revealing Mr. Trump’s earnest effort to confront a foreign government and pressure them to investigate and turn over information about their meddling in the 2016 elections.

Now Democrats want to impeach Mr. Trump for that.

In other words, Democrats today want to impeach Mr. Trump for doing what they say they have wanted him to do for three years.

[...]

The whole thing quickly devolved into another comical farce when Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat and “intelligence” chairman, kicked off the hearing by setting aside the just-released transcript of the telephone call between Mr. Trump and the president of Ukraine. He chose instead to read an entirely made up, fraudulent and fabricated transcript of a call that never occurred....

Read the rest HERE.

Video:

YouTube blurb for the above:

...Adam Schiff misled congress and the American people today when he read his own version of the transcript filled with lies and mischaracterizations of President Trump's conversation. Democrats are now openly lying about what Trump said in an effort to get him impeached.

Note that "journalist" Peter Wehner has alluded to Schiff's words as the truth.

President Trump's Speech To The United Nations (September 24, 2019)

HEAR! HEAR!

AMERICA FIRST!

"The future doesn't belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots. The future belongs to strong independent nations."

Never Forget

Eighteen years ago today....


It will never be distant history for me.

For me, it is as yesterday.  And my anger still burns.

All those hours waiting to hear if two of my homeschool fathers were still alive. Phone services of all types were in a knot, and the wait seemed endless. Both of these men were unharmed, but one had a very close call: he was supposed to be in one of the Pentagon rooms directly hit that horrible morning. Thank God that he was called away to Capitol Hill a mere fifteen minutes before American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.

And who can forget watching live the collapse of the Twin Towers after being struck by American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175?

And there were those long minutes awaiting the location of United Airlines Flight 93. Thank God for the patriots aboard that flight.

Yes, eighteen years is a long time ago. 

But not for me.

And I will never buy into the whitewash of Islam.

Liar, Liar! Pants On Fire!

Today's Democrat Party, blaming President Trump for everything....

The growing anti-Semitism in our political dialogue is repugnant. @realdonaldtrump’s comments about disloyalty are a vicious and dangerous anti-Semitic trope. And the Carlos Latuff cartoon forwarded by @RepRashida and @Ilhan can surely be read for its vile underlying message.

— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) August 22, 2019

About Mecca

Some interesting information here, information which removes Mecca from its central place in Islam:

Mueller Is A Liar

A sitting President can indeed be indicted.

Found via a simple Google search which pulled up in the first 10 hits Can the President Be Indicted? A Long-Hidden Legal Memo Says Yes (New York Times, 2017):

WASHINGTON — A newfound memo from Kenneth W. Starr’s independent counsel investigation into President Bill Clinton sheds fresh light on a constitutional puzzle that is taking on mounting significance amid the Trump-Russia inquiry: Can a sitting president be indicted?

The 56-page memo, locked in the National Archives for nearly two decades and obtained by The New York Times under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to the most thorough government-commissioned analysis rejecting a generally held view that presidents are immune from prosecution while in office.

“It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the president’s official duties,” the Starr office memo concludes....

[...]

As Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the latest inquiry, investigates the Trump campaign’s dealings with Russia and whether President Trump obstructed justice, the newly unearthed Starr office memo raises the possibility that Mr. Mueller may have more options than most commentators have assumed....

To date, I've neither read nor heard a refutation of Mueller's related statement given on May 29, 2019.

For Memorial Day 2019

[With thanks to Warren, who called my attention to the cited essay below]

[about "Flags In" at Arlington National Cemetery]

Some appropriate reading for Memorial Day and worth pondering....

From Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery by Tom Cotton, published in Hillsdale College's Imprimis (April/May, 2019):

Every headstone at Arlington tells a story. These are tales of heroes, I thought, as I placed the toe of my combat boot against the white marble. I pulled a miniature American flag out of my assault pack and pushed it three inches into the ground at my heel. I stepped aside to inspect it, making sure it met the standard that we had briefed to our troops: “vertical and perpendicular to the headstone.” Satisfied, I moved to the next headstone to keep up with my soldiers. Having started this row, I had to complete it. One soldier per row was the rule; otherwise, different boot sizes might disrupt the perfect symmetry of the headstones and flags. I planted flag after flag, as did the soldiers on the rows around me.

Bending over to plant the flags brought me eye-level with the lettering on those marble stones. The stories continued with each one. Distinguished Service Cross. Silver Star. Bronze Star. Purple Heart. America’s wars marched by. Iraq. Afghanistan. Vietnam. Korea. World War II. World War I. Some soldiers died in very old age; others were teenagers. Crosses, Stars of David, Crescents and Stars. Every religion, every race, every age, every region of America is represented in these fields of stone.

I came upon the gravesite of a Medal of Honor recipient. I paused, came to attention, and saluted. The Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest decoration for battlefield valor. By military custom, all soldiers salute Medal of Honor recipients irrespective of their rank, in life and in death. We had reminded our soldiers of this courtesy; hundreds of grave sites would receive salutes that afternoon. I planted this hero’s flag and kept moving.

On some headstones sat a small memento: a rank or unit patch, a military coin, a seashell, sometimes just a penny or a rock. Each was a sign that someone—maybe family or friends, or perhaps a battle buddy who lived because of his friend’s ultimate sacrifice—had visited, honored, and mourned. For those of us who had been downrange, the sight was equally comforting and jarring—a sign that we would be remembered in death, but also a reminder of just how close some of us had come to resting here ourselves. We left those mementos undisturbed.

After a while, my hand began to hurt from pushing on the pointed, gold tips of the flags. There had been no rain that week, so the ground was hard. I asked my soldiers how they were moving so fast and seemingly pain-free. They asked if I was using a bottle cap, and I said no. Several shook their heads in disbelief; forgetting a bottle cap was apparently a mistake on par with forgetting one’s rifle or night-vision goggles on patrol in Iraq. Those kinds of little tricks and techniques were not briefed in the day’s written orders, but rather got passed down from seasoned soldiers. These details often make the difference between mission success or failure in the Army, whether in combat or stateside. After some good-natured ribbing at my expense, a young private squared me away with a spare cap.

We finished up our last section and got word over the radio to go place flags in the Columbarium, where open-air buildings contain thousands of urns. Walking down Arlington’s leafy avenues, we passed Section 60, where soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan were laid to rest if their families chose Arlington as their eternal home. Unlike in the sections we had just completed, several visitors and mourners were present. Some had settled in for a while on blankets or lawn chairs. Others walked among the headstones. Even from a respectful distance, we could see the sense of loss and grief on their faces.

Once we finished in the Columbarium, “mission complete” came over the radio and we began the long walk up Arlington’s hills and back to Fort Myer. In just a few hours, we had placed a flag at every grave site in this sacred ground, more than two hundred thousand of them. From President John F. Kennedy to the Unknown Soldiers to the youngest privates from our oldest wars, every hero of Arlington had a few moments that day with a soldier who, in this simple act of remembrance, delivered a powerful message to the dead and the living alike: you are not forgotten.

*****************************************************************************

The Thursday before Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery is known as “Flags In.” The soldiers who place the flags belong to the 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, better known as The Old Guard. My turn at Flags In came in 2007, when I served with The Old Guard between my tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Old Guard is literally the old guard, the oldest active-duty infantry regiment in the Army, dating back to 1784, three years older even than our Constitution....

[...]

No one summed up better what The Old Guard of Arlington means for our nation than Sergeant Major of the Army Dan Dailey. He shared a story with me about taking a foreign military leader through Arlington to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Sergeant Major Dailey said, “I was explaining what The Old Guard does and he was looking out the window at all those headstones. After a long pause, still looking at the headstones, he said, ‘Now I know why your soldiers fight so hard. You take better care of your dead than we do our living.’”

Read the entire essay HERE.

Memorial Day is not really about store sales and cookouts. 

Rather, Memorial Day is a solemn commemoration of our fallen military across the centuries. 

Pause, remember, reflect.

Ramadan Mubarak

From Powerline Blog:

Islamophilia & Dhimmitude In Our Education System

From Seattle School District Wants Teachers To Bless Muslims During Ramadan: "The district is running roughshod over the First Amendment’s mandate..."(May 7, 2019):

A school district in Seattle has sent out a letter asking teachers to bless its Muslim students in Arabic during the month of Ramadan and give them preferential treatment, such as obtaining dispensations for classes and exams...

In response to the letter, the religious liberty legal defense group Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF), has threatened the Dieringer School District with a potential lawsuit for violating the conscience of its employees. FCDF alleges that the district followed edicts put forward by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that advises schools to accommodate Muslim students by wishing them "Ramadan Mubarak" (Happy Ramadan) or "Ramadan Kareem" (Have a generous Ramadan). The edicts also instruct teachers to respect the fast by not scheduling any tests during the holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha....

Read the rest HERE.

This would be my response if I were ordered to pay homage to Islam, which is incompatible with American values:

What Is Ramadan?

(Much of this blog post was previously published on July 30, 2011, and on June 18, 2015)

Ramadan 2019 began at sunset on May 6 and continues for 30 days until June 5.

What does Ramadan really celebrate, particularly Eid ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan?

If one understands the history of Islam and, especially, that of Ramadan, one will come to understand that such a commemoration, including iftar dinners at the White House, should be unacceptable to all those who oppose Islamic supremacism.

Ramadan involves more than prayers, fasting, and the giving of alms — all of which are part of the month long observance but which are also the outward signs of another message. By literal definition, of course, Ramadan commemorates Allah's "revealing" the Qur'an to Muhammad. But history clearly indicates that the "revelations" from Allah to Muhammad began around 610, some fourteen years earlier than 624.

Those earlier passages, sometimes referred to as the Meccan verses, are the oft-quoted peaceful verses in the Koran. Contrary to what one might expect, however, the last day of Ramadan does not celebrate the actual date of the earliest peaceful "revelations" of Allah to Muhammad but rather the Battle of Badr, the first significant military victory by the forces of Muhammad.

The Battle of Badr of March 17, 624, is one of the few military conflicts specifically mentioned in the Qur'an and holds a great deal of significance in Islam. Eid ul-Fitr, the final portion of Ramadan, has as its origin the aforementioned battle. Furthermore and most importantly, this battle marked the turning point for Islam, both politically and ideologically.

Having earlier fled to Medina along with followers who accepted him as their prophet whereas most of the tribes of Mecca did not, early on that morning in 624 Muhammad got word that a rich Quraish caravan from Syria was returning to Mecca. He therefore assembled the largest army he had ever been able to muster, some 300 men, with the original intent of raiding the caravan. After his men successfully overtook the caravan and brought back the booty, Muhammad then conveniently received a new "revelation" from Allah — a "revelation" which not only included rejoicing in having captured an enemy's caravan but which also called "proved" that Muhammad had been preaching the true way all along. Fulfilling Destiny, Muhammad and his forces proceeded to trounce the Quraish as punishment for having earlier rejected the prophet's teachings. From this source:

In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful.

The battle of Badr was the most important among the Islamic battles of Destiny. For the first time the followers of the new faith were put into a serious test. Had victory been the lot of the pagan army while the Islamic Forces were still at the beginning of their developments, the faith of Islam could have come to an end.

No one was aware of the importance of the outcome of the Battle as the Prophet (S.A.W.) himself. We might read the depth of his anxiety in his prayer before the beginning of the Battle when he stood up supplicating his Lord:

God this is Quraish. It has come with all its arrogance and boastfulness, trying to discredit Thy Apostle. God, I ask Thee to humiliate them tomorrow. God, if this Muslim band will perish today, Thou shall not be worshipped.

[...]

This battle laid the foundation of the Islamic State...

In other words, victory at the Battle of Badr proved to Muhammad and his adherents that Islam should from that time forth take on a militant aspect because such is the will of Allah. From the day of the Battle of Badr on, the tone of the verses in the Qur'an changed. These more recent "revelations," sometimes referred to as the Medinan verses, abrogated the earlier and peaceful Meccan ones. Because preaching and tolerance had not brought Muhammad the following which he needed in order to establish himself and Islam as political forces to be reckoned with, Allah, via a military victory, showed the prophet a more effective way to spread Islam. Therefore, Muhammad's victory at the Battle of Badr symbolizes both the way to bring about the will of Allah and the will of Allah itself.

It is no coincidence that in 2011 the Taliban bestowed the name "Badr" upon their spring offensive.

In sum, Ramadan is, in and of itself, a statement advocating submission to Islam and to the will of Allah. Ah, the dhimmitude and submission of all Western leaders when they send Ramadan greetings to the Islamic world!

Surreal Fragile Snowflake

What in the world is this girl going to do when she faces the real hardships that life can dish out?

And they wonder why they get called ‘snowflakes’? pic.twitter.com/mVIisTPoCk

— WireSpy (@TheAngryApe1) April 26, 2019

Names Have Meaning: Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber Mohammed Azzam Mohammed

About the Easter Sunday jihadist who stood in line at the crowded breakfast buffet at one of those high-end hotels and detonated himself just as he was about to be served:

"Mohammed Azzam Mohammed is an interesting name. Everyone has heard of Mohammed, but most people are unaware of the meaning of 'Azzam'" — pennant8 https://t.co/iqu71XSUfO

— Always On Watch (@Always_On_Watch) April 22, 2019

From Wikipedia:

Abdullah Yusuf Azzam (Arabic: عبد الله يوسف عزام‎, ‘Abdu’llāh Yūsuf ‘Azzām; 1941 – 24 November 1989) also known as Father of Global Jihad[1][2] was a Palestinian Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian and founding member of al-Qaeda.[3] Azzam preached both defensive and offensive jihad by Muslims to help the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet invaders.[3] He raised funds, recruited and organised the international Islamic volunteer effort of Afghan Arabs through the 1980s, and emphasised the political aspects of Islam.

Azzam was a teacher and mentor of Osama bin Laden and persuaded bin Laden to come to Afghanistan and help the jihad. As the war drew to an end, they both established al-Qaeda. He was also a co-founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Azzam was killed by a car bomb while within Peshawar, Pakistan in 1989.[10]

The Gold Cross Remains

The golden cross and the Pietà sculpture of Mary holding the crucified Jesus at the base of the cross survived. A powerful symbol in Holy Week:

Related: The hero who saved the Crown of Thorns: Fire brigade chaplain entered flaming Notre Dame to recover holy relic - three years after he bravely helped Bataclan terror victims.

GOP Post-Mueller-Investigation Video

Headlines, with rousing music ("Can Can"):

Quotation Of The Day

A comment found on blog rounds the morning after the Mueller Investigation was concluded and a comment which sums up my own thoughts....

Commenter LL's evaluation as stated at Lone Star Parson:

Mueller, in the end, after making his retirement money (for himself and his cronies), and lacking ANY evidence, finally folded his tent and the aspirations of the Deep State and the Corrupt Media are weeping (more) bitter tears. The Russia collusion narrative is dead even though pawns like Adam Schiff (D-CA) will continue to beat the drum because it's the only drum they have.

Russia, military in decline, reduced to a regional power with a nuclear arsenal, is doing its best to follow a Russia First agenda, and why shouldn't they? China is having some money problems but it's still promoting its belt road agenda, and the US is energy and food independent, steel industry back in business.

President Trump has revealed disastrous trade deals with China, Japan, Korea and Europe is re-mapping how business is to be done and the Deep State trembles. All that money in bribes stopped. All those plans to weaken the US have been put on hold. Such a pity -- all that plotting, waiting and hoping that somebody like Beto or the fake Indian will capture the imagination of the voters. Somebody who can read the message of his/her handlers from a teleprompter the way that Barack did.

Last year, one of my clients, a dyed-in-the-wool member of the Democrat Party, said to me, with feigned sorrow, "I'm sorry. But Trump is going to be removed from office."  You see, she really believed the drumbeat she heard every day on MSNBC and The View.

And there are millions more like my former client.

I wonder....How long before more screaming at the sky commences?

Let the nervous breakdowns begin!

Related reading, from Lone Star Parson's follow-up post Satan Does Not Tolerate Failure. Worth your time.

Trump Omitted From The 2020 Ballot?

[source]

From Trump could be left off some states’ ballots in 2020 if these bills become law (Washington Post, March 20, 2019, emphases mine):

In refusing to release his tax returns, President Trump bucked decades of tradition and set off a Democrat hunt to obtain them. Now several statehouses are looking at making their release a condition of the 2020 presidential election: Show us your tax returns, or you can’t be on the ballot.

Eighteen states have considered legislation this year that would require presidential and vice presidential candidates to post their tax returns to appear on the ballot during a primary or general election, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).

Proponents of the bills, such as the one passed by the Washington state Senate this week, say they are aimed at increasing transparency and returning to the “norm” of candidates releasing their financial records. But Democratic lawmakers behind the some of the legislation have admitted they are also very much about Trump, which raises legal and political questions about how far states can — or should — go in regulating who appears on their ballot, especially in a hyperpartisan climate.

In addition to Washington, several other states, including California, Hawaii and New Jersey are considering similar bills....

[...]

...[N]ot all politicians think this kind of legislation is a good idea. In 2017, then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed one bill that made it to his desk, calling it “politics at its worst.” Former California governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, did the same when California’s legislature passed similar measure.

“First, it may not be constitutional,” Brown wrote in his decision. “Second, it sets a ‘slippery slope’ precedent. Today we require tax returns, but what would be next? Five years of health records? A certified birth certificate? High school report cards? And will these requirements vary depending on which political party is in power?”...

Read the rest HERE.

The phrase by hook or by crook comes to mind. So does the word unhinged.

Related? Elizabeth Warren wants to kill the electoral college.

The West's Political Class — Determined To Ignore The Will Of The People

Two snippets from Brexit, Trump’s wall, and the cynical inertia of the political class: In our democracies, politicians won’t do what people want:

...More people in the UK voted for Brexit — some 17 million — than have voted for anything at any time in the country’s history....

and

...Back by the Rio Grande, the people most affected are desperate for the wall to be built and for our immigration laws to be enforced. After pursuing other avenues and having been stymied, President Trump finally declared a national emergency to siphon funds from elsewhere to build the wall. The caterwauling over that would have been comical had it not been so obviously cynical. Between 2001 and 2013, various presidents have declared national emergencies 18 times and have diverted funds without Congressional appropriate to various projects. It’s different this time because it’s Trump....

Read the rest HERE.

So, what are WE THE PEOPLE supposed to be when we are regarded as peasants beyond the moat, peasants who, according to the oligarchy of all political parties, are incapable of understanding what we want for today and for our future?

I submit that we in the West are at a turning point: it's now or never for the future of our nations as representative governments.

Ilhan Omar's Victory Lap

Check out this Tweet:

Our nation is having a difficult conversation, but we believe this is great progress. pic.twitter.com/gSua9a8mki

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) March 7, 2019

Note this portion:

...It's the first time we've voted on a resolution condemning Anti-Muslim bigotry in our nation's history....

A Congressional resolution isn't law. But how far away are we from a law forbidding sites such as Infidel Bloggers Alliance?  In many circles, any criticism of Islam is considered to be "anti-Muslim" bigotry.

The Stealth Of Servergate

Worth noting:

This should be retweeted everywhere.

The scope of the Hillary Clinton email investigation was so private, the OIG didn't have the security clearances needed to view the emails.

And, the emails couldn't be given to Congress.

Just wow.

Listen.pic.twitter.com/Wwb2hisnUH

— Mike (@FuctupMike) February 12, 2019