Month: June 2017

 
From Neil Bamforth at MadMikesAmerica:

To be honest internment is the solution. At least initially.

Any Muslim suspected of being a jihadi or supporting them needs to be interred. That ensures, if they are indeed jihadis or supporters, that they cannot harm innocents.

If, in turn, they are actually proven innocent then fine, they are released.

We can no longer worry about the human rights of Muslims in Britain if they are suspected by our security services of sympathies for Islamic State.

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From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

As the Post reports in Primed to Fight the Government:

Deep in the heart of a vast U.S. military training ground, surrounded by spent shotgun shells and juniper trees blasted to shreds, the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard was conducting its weekly firearms training.

“The intent is to be able to work together and defend ourselves if we need to,” said B. J. Soper, 40, a building contractor who is an emerging leader in a growing national movement rooted in distrust of the federal government, one that increasingly finds itself in armed conflicts with authorities.

Those in the movement call themselves patriots, demanding that the federal government adhere to the Constitution and stop what they see as systematic abuse of land rights, gun rights, freedom of speech and other liberties.

This is absolutely the wrong way to fight for freedom in America.

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From The Borowitz Report:

“Earth is a terrible, very bad planet,” he told the White House press corps. “It’s maybe the worst planet in the solar system, and it’s far from the biggest.”

Trump blasted former President Barack Obama for signing deals that committed the United States to remain on the planet Earth indefinitely. “Obama is almost as big a loser as Earth,” Trump said. “If Obama was a planet, guess what planet he’d be? That’s right: Earth.”

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

 
From The Onion:

“MONTGOMERY, WV—Acknowledging that he has become a real burden on their foraging and nesting activities, a local raccoon family told reporters Tuesday that they are starting to get tired of taking care of their rabid father.

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From Dave Dubya:

The Great American Tragedy proclaimed:

“At what point does America get demeaned? At what point do they start laughing at us as a country? We want fair treatment for its citizens and we want fair treatment for our taxpayers. We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be. They won’t be. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”

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From Iron Knee at Political Irony:

Donald Trump is his own worst enemy. Twice the courts have struck down the travel ban against Muslims he promised repeatedly during his presidential campaign. In response, his spokespeople denied that it was a travel ban against Muslims. For example, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said “It’s not a Muslim ban. It’s not a travel ban. It’s a vetting system to keep America safe.” And the head of Homeland Security said that Trump’s executive order stopping immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries was “not a travel ban”. Just Thursday, Trump asked the Supreme Court to revive his (not a) travel ban.

And then, something happened Saturday night in London.

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From Michael Kinsley:

“Whither NATO” is probably the greatest snoozer headline of the past half-century. It has been used on editorials, op-ed articles, think-tank reports — anyplace an editor wants to communicate, “I’ve been forced at gunpoint to publish this essay, but for God’s sake don’t read it.” If Donald Trump had done nothing more than to create a legitimate occasion for calling a newspaper article “Whither NATO,” his place in history would be assured. Small, but assured.

But Mr. Trump has gone further. He has actually put the future of NATO on the global agenda by saying, on his European trip in May, that the United States spends far more on the shared defense than our allies do. That, he declared, was going to stop.

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Wondering why a few conservative friends are less than impressed.

• Let’s see. It’s only one part of an article by Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson.
   
  We know Medicaid provides health care for low-income people, families and children, pregnant women, elderly people, folks with disabilities – you know – those in need.
   
  A Democrat in Wisconsin doesn’t like that Governor Walker reduces health care for those many in need by turning away Medicaid expansion paid by the federal government. He points out that, under Obamacare, Walker is only canceling funding needed for Wisconsin families and sending it on to other states.
   
  James is indignant at the false charge. Walker didn’t send the money to other states. Since Obama invented Obamacare rules, Obama sent it back.
   
  No, really. That’s what he says.
   
• Iron Knee at Political Irony sees victims hurt or killed, and churches vandalized, by American extremists, and surveys the very large number of very successful Islamic benefit campaigns to help and heal.
   
• Infidel753 examines 3 results of the Trump climate change action: opprobrium, damage, and weakness. Insightful – typical for Infidel.
   
• nojo at Stinque explains why climate change denial can be compelling for those in denial.
   
• My president’s decision to leave the Paris Accord may be disastrous, but Jonathan Bernstein says voters will evaluate it on whether they like Trump, not the other way around. Won’t affect the 2020 election at all.
   
• Looking at the latest Trump scandals, Green Eagle adds to the follow-the-money clues with the pattern we can find by simply following the international benefit.
   
• Andy Borowitz reports satirically the claim by President Trump that he has seen Jared Kushner walking around the White House, but hardly knows who the young man actually is.
   
• Last Of The Millenniums contrasts the expressed appreciation by President Obama of military generally and sacrifices specifically with attitudes expressed by his successor.
   
• Pretty much everyone except her boyfriend and immediate relatives are throwing mudballs at Kathy Griffin. At The Moderate Voice, Joe Gandelman puts into words why they are right.
   
• Well, except for David Greenberg at MadMikesAmerica. David defends Kathy by comparing her offensive little skit with the years of tasteless, racist, brutal portrayals of the Obama family.
   
• George Will nurses fond memories of when conservatism was cool. driftglass racks his brain, but doesn’t share those memories. I must be getting old. All I recall is noxious opinions alternating with rancid attitudes.
   
• Yellow Dog at Blue in the Bluegrass explains the weird slave-state relationship of Kentucky with the Civil War Confederacy and ignorance of that history within the state.
   
• Tommy Christopher, at Shareblue, reports on more weirdness from the madcap world of Trump: the executive branch has lawyered up about Russia and spokespeople militantly refuse to admit to a simple typo. Questions on Russia are being referred to Trump lawyers and it seems “covfefe” was an inside joke.
   
• This week, we dabble in non-Trumpian ‘Alternative Facts’. The Boston Globe is so entranced by the artform the Trump team has made of falsehood, Brian White takes a stab at three explanations for covfefe.
   
• Vincent at A Wayfarer’s Notes seems understandably frustrated, continuing his own internal debate about how to do not doing.