AND EVENTUALLY, PEOPLE QUIT LISTENING. ENJOY! Every Republican president is “the most extreme ever,” or so Democrats and their media friends insist. “The tragedy of all this is that, yeah, we really could use an effective, active, and credible press right now.” We could, but we don’t have one. “My criticisms of Trump do not go so far as those who believe that he is a budding fascist dictator on the verge of building concentration camps, but if you really did believe that, wouldn’t you wish, at least a little, that the media hadn’t been exactly as hysterical when faced with the bland, anodyne visage of Mitt Romney? Or John McCain? You want to be taken seriously now after insisting that Dick Cheney was the new American Gestapo?”
Archive for 2017
February 19, 2017
ANNALS OF ASTROTURF: Obama-linked activists have a ‘training manual’ for protesting Trump.
AN INSTAPUNDIT READER EMAILS WITH A QUESTION:
I have a question for your readers and wonder if someone might have an answer?
A couple years ago, I changed my log in password for my old Onparkstreet blog after making it private. I forgot to write the log in password down. I got locked out and it’s private so I can’t read any of my old posts.
I had saved the WordPress “key” to prove my identity in an email account that was cleaned out without my knowing it. I lost all those emails and proof of blog ownership. I also stupidly deleted the email account associated with the blog.
I know, I know. I thought I had saved the “key” and could prove that I was the owner of the onparkstreet blog. In an Excite account. That I checked every few months, so I never saw the warning that old emails would be deleted until it was too late.
I forgot about it after pleading with WordPress to help me out (“not without the key or a saved draft to prove ownership”), and just accepted that I lost all my posts. Recently, however, a family member has become sick (but is post treatment and doing well) and I would like to look up old posts that might cheer her up. Some of the posts were about little outings that we took and I think she might like it.
Is there anyone that could help in this situation? I used to cross post at Chicagoboyz and it is clear on the blog that I am doing that and Chicagoboyz can vouch for me, plus, I think I could go back to posting to prove it’s me.
Any suggestions?
I got nuthin’. Please post any ideas in the comments.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: 5 Myths About Treason.
FACT-CHECK: Trump 4, Politifact 1.
DAMN. THE PHOTOS HAVE LEAKED OUT. I BLAME RUSSIAN HACKERS. “The mystery of the Mussolini-Reynolds connection deepens. . . . Mussolini was killed, but eerily, Glenn has hardly aged at all since those dark days.”
RICHARD FERNANDEZ HAS BEEN ON A ROLL LATELY:
MEANT TO DO THIS EARLIER TODAY BUT JUST GOT AROUND TO IT: And it’s worth noting. I scan StrategyPage’s “Today in Military History” three or four times a week. Today was noteworthy. 74 years ago Rommel attacked U.S. forces in the Kasserine Pass. 72 years ago the USMC invaded Iwo Jima. 20 years ago Chinese reformer and mass murderer Deng Xioaping died. But dig this: today in 1648 the Portuguese defeated the Dutch in the First Battle of Guararapes (northeastern Brazil).
WASHINGTON EXAMINER EDITORIAL: There Is No Fourth Branch Of Government.
Before Scott Pruitt was confirmed as the Environmental Protection Agency’s new administrator, the New York Times reported agency staff fighting against his nomination. This is highly unusual and inappropriate. It shows not only how difficult his new job will be but also how necessary it is that he succeed. And it shows, too, how great a threat rogue bureaucracy can become to constitutional order.
EPA scientists, lawyers and experts participated in an influence campaign aimed at senators, urging them to vote against Pruitt as their new boss. Their union’s leader, John O’Grady, promised a continuous campaign against President Trump’s environmental policies that their tactics would include “reaching out to NGOs and having alliances with them” and “working with P.R. firms.”
It is widely known and understandable that government employees are not Trump’s best constituency. But this sort of activism by federal employees, even outside election season, gets into dangerous territory.
This is why we need civil service reform.
R.I.P. JANE ROE/NORMA MCCORVEY: And this bit underscores the ethical issues involved in getting together plaintiffs for public interest litigation:
Years later, Ms. McCorvey expressed bitterness at what she described as her attorneys’ unwillingness to help her find what she needed — an abortion, even an illegal one.
“Sarah sat right across the table from me at Columbo’s pizza parlor, and I didn’t know until two years ago that she had had an abortion herself,” Ms. McCorvey told the New York Times in 1994. “When I told her then how desperately I needed one, she could have told me where to go for it. But she wouldn’t because she needed me to be pregnant for her case.”
“Sarah saw these cuts on my wrists, my swollen eyes from crying,” she continued, “the miserable person sitting across from her, and she knew she had a patsy. She knew I wouldn’t go outside of the realm of her and Linda. I was too scared. It was one of the most hideous times of my life.”
It’s not like Sarah Weddington would have become a heroine of feminism if she’d actually helped the woman sitting across the table from her.
EVEN THOUGH I WROTE IT, until my brother reminded me I had forgotten that this 2000 Nebraska Guitar Militia song anticipated the Hillary Clinton / Donald Trump election. “All you politicians won’t know which way to jump! Watch out, Hillary Clinton! Watch out, Donald Trump!” Right about 1:40. And note the pre-Tech-Bubble-bursting preach at the end: “No condition is permanent.”
However, while I’m strolling through memory lane, I think these lyrics are the best I ever wrote. Which may not be setting the bar all that high, but it’s what I’ve got.
DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH: Headteacher is forced to work from home following death threats from Muslim parents over her ‘offensive clothes’ amid fears there is a ‘Trojan Horse’ plot to ‘Islamicise’ the school.
A primary school headteacher has been forced to work from home by death threats from Muslim parents who hate her western values.
Trish O’Donnell, head of Clarksfield Primary School in Oldham, has endured ‘harassment and intimidation’ in the form of ‘aggressive verbal abuse’ and ‘threats to blow up her car’ from parents pushing conservative Muslim values.
It is feared they are making a ‘Trojan Horse’ attempt to Islamicise the school.
If someone made similar threats in opposition to Islam, the British authorities would come down like a ton of bricks. But here, well . . . .
WHY DID TRUMP’S MELBOURNE RALLY OPEN WITH Melania Reciting The Lord’s Prayer?
Well, if you watch the video, you’ll see a lot of BlacksForTrump2020.com signs and t-shirts behind her. Now ask yourself: What demographic that traditionally votes for Democrats is the most overtly Christian, and most likely to respond favorably to overt expressions of Christianity? Just a thought. And remember, if Trump — who did surprisingly okay with black voters, considering, in 2016 — can pull another 10-15% of black votes in 2020, he’s basically unbeatable.
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Knife Rights bills filed in Texas and West Virginia.
WAIT, WOULDN’T IT BE A GOOD SIGN IF THEY WERE? Ford denies its engineers are dozing off in autonomous cars.
AT AMAZON, save in Storage and Home Organization.
21ST CENTURY WORRIES: Bioterrorism could kill more people than nuclear war, Bill Gates to warn world leaders.
Rapid advances in genetic engineering have opened the door for small terrorism groups to tailor and easily turn biological viruses into weapons.
A resulting disease pandemic is currently one of the most deadly threats faced by the world, he believes, yet governments are complacent about the scale of the risk.
Speaking ahead of an address to the Munich Security Conference, the richest man in the world said that while governments are concerned with the proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons, they are overlooking the threat of biological warfare.
Well, we’re less than a decade from the setting of Vernor Vinge’s Rainbows End, where this situation obtained:
Every year, the civilized world grew and the reach of lawlessness and poverty shrank. Many people thought that the world was becoming a safer place . . . Nowadays Grand Terror technology was so cheap that cults and criminal gangs could acquire it. . . . In all innocence, the marvelous creativity of humankind continued to generate unintended consequences. There were a dozen research trends that could ultimately put world-killer weapons in the hands of anyone having a bad hair day.
Worse yet, today the civilized world doesn’t seem to be growing, and lawlessness doesn’t seem to be shrinking. Poverty continues to decline, but the politicians may manage to turn that one around too. . . .
UPDATE: Today’s sickest comment burn: “If anyone should know about the devastating effects of viruses, it would be the founder of Microsoft.”
ANNALS OF FAKE NEWS:
SOME USEFUL OBSERVATIONS FROM RICHARD FERNANDEZ:
DICTATOR UPDATE: Zimbabwe’s 93 year old Robert Mugabe says he’ll stay in power.
He’s going to run for re-election — of course the election will be a sham.
“The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, a successor who to them is acceptable, as acceptable as I am,” he added.
Mugabe, who has kept an iron grip on power since Zimbabwe declared independence in 1980, has repeatedly denied reports of health problems.
RELATED: Background from 2008.
READER BOOK PLUG: From reader Clay Cambridge, How to Remember Stuff: The Proven, Fun & Easy Way.