Shad Planking Goes PC - Wakefield Ruritan Boots Confederate Heritage Group From Event

Via Susan

The annual Shad Planking in Wakefield, Virginia was at one time the biggest political event in the Commonwealth. It offered citizens a chance to interact with candidates one on one and was an event that allowed all Virginians to have a voice.

 In 2013, the Virginia Flaggers attended the event and were able to give some scalawag politicians a pretty good flagging, in spite of the entourage/bouncers they had with them...


Apparently, this did not sit well with some of the establishment candidates.  When we returned the following year, new signs were in place...

More @ The Virginia Flaggers

Metastasizing Academic Cancer

Via Billy

The average American has little knowledge of the extent to which our institutions of higher learning have been infected with spreading cancer. One aspect of that cancer is akin to the loyalty oaths of the 1940s and ’50s. Professors were often required to sign statements that affirmed their loyalty to the United States government plus swear they were not members of any organizations, including the Communist Party USA, that sought the overthrow of the United States government. Fortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down loyalty oaths as a condition of employment in 1964.

Today we’re seeing the re-emergence of the mentality that gave us loyalty oaths, in the form of mandating that faculty members write “diversity statements,” especially as part of hiring and promotion procedures. They are forced to pledge allegiance to the college’s diversity agenda. For example, the University of California, San Diego requires that one’s “Contributions to Diversity Statement” describe one’s “past experience, activities and future plans to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, in alignment with UC San Diego’s mission to reflect the diversity of California and to meet the educational needs and interests of its diverse population (http://tinyurl.com/mm6vzzq).” 

George Leef, director of research at The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, has written an article titled “Loyalty Oaths Return with Faculty ‘Diversity Statements'” (http://tinyurl.com/mxy363c). His article documents the growing trend of mandated faculty diversity statements — such as that !at Virginia Tech, in which “candidates should include a list of activities that promote or contribute to inclusive teaching, research, outreach, and service.”

More @ LRC

Russian Expert Stephen Cohen: In 40 Years, I Have Never Been as Worried as I Am Today About Possibility of War with Russia

Via Billy

On Wednesday Tucker Carlson invited professor Stephen Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton and NYU and editor of The Nation magazine, to discuss current US relations with Russia.

Cohen told Tucker he was very concerned about the current geopolitical situation and warmongering by the Democrat Party and Lindsey Graham.

Stephen Cohen: They think we’re crazy… You quoted Russian the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev saying we’re on the brink of war. He also said, and I’ve been doing this 40 years and I don’t remember a Soviet or post-Soviet leader saying this, Medvedev said American and Russian relations are absolutely ruined. What is important is Medvedev is considered to be the most pro-Western member of the Putin leadership. He’s the guy that Obmama and Clinton tried to base the reset on…

…What’s happened in Washington, this attempt to portray Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin, it’s convincing Russia that the American warfare party is behind this. And my concern is that Russia will overreact… Give me five seconds. I’ve been doing this 40 years, sometimes as a professor, sometimes inside, and I have never been as worried as I am today about the possibility of war with Russia.

More @ The Gateway Pundit

US Expected to Return 4,000 Somali Migrants to Their Homeland

Via Billy

Somalia's U.S. ambassador says his embassy has learned that U.S. immigration agents are planning to deport about 4,000 Somali nationals now living in the United States.

"We learned through immigration sources that the total number of the Somalis that are in the books of [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to be removed are close to 4,000," Ahmed Isse Awad told VOA's Somali service Saturday. "Most of them are not in detention centers."

More @ VOA

Wikileaks Posts Unclassified Email to Hillary Clinton From Foreign Policy Advisor: ‘Al Qaeda is on Our Side in Syria’

Via Billy

Wikileaks posted an unclassified email to Hillary Clinton from her foreign policy advisor, Jake Sullivan dated February 2012 saying, ‘AQ is on our side in Syria’.

Moe @ The Gateway Pundit

Truman State University: Robert Spencer Set to Speak, Left-Fascists Call for Violence: It’s what they do.

Via Billy

Whoever said that fascism would come to America in the guise of anti-fascism got it right. The College Republicans chapter at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri invited me to speak Thursday. Last week, this invitation came to the attention of a young Kirksville resident who called herself Bella Waddle; Waddle tweeted (her tweets are now protected, but I was able to capture plenty of them in time): “Truman’s College Repubs are hosting anti-Muslim extremist Robert Spencer on the 13th. I think y’all know what to do... #bashthefash,” followed by an emoji of a fist. A friend of Waddle, identified on Twitter only as Sarah, got the point immediately, and tweeted in reply:

“PUNCH! HIS! FACE!”

Another individual with “BlackLivesMatter” as part of his Twitter bio voiced indignation at the Islamophobic establishment, even though this was a private event, not sponsored by the university:

“@TrumanState should be ashamed for hosting a bigoted extremist like @jihadwatchRS.

Solidarity to those defying this.” Bella Waddle herself was determined to show defiance, tweeting several days before the event: “We’re organizing to make sure he knows he isn’t welcome here. And apparently he’s heard about it.”

More @ Front Page

Kim Jong-un orders 25% evacuation of Pyongyang

Via Iver

 

North Koreaт leader Kim Jong-un ordered 25 percent of Pyongyang residents to leave the city immediately.

In accordance with the order, 600,000 people should be urgently evacuated. Experts note that the evacuation will most likely be conducted due to extremely strained tensions in relations with the United States of America.

Reportedly, Pyongyang's bomb shelters will not be able to accommodate the entire population of the North Korean capital. Therefore, 600,000 people - mostly individuals with criminal records - will have to leave Pyongyang to let others use bomb shelters.

More @ PRAVDA

BBC The REAL HouseWives Of ISIS

Via jrpippin

Jefferson New and Improved

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.
— THOMAS JEFFERSON

A Review of In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson, by Noble E. Cunningham. Jr., Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. 414 pages.

With the exception of the driven and depressed Lincoln, no major figure in American history is in the final analysis, more enigmatic than Jefferson. Without any exception, none is more complex. There is more to the enigma and complexity than a multitude of facets—political leader, botanist, architect, linguist, ethnographer, musician, man of letters, and much else. (If he had never held a public office.

Jefferson’s correspondence would still be one of the most valuable treasures of his era.) But behind these varied roles was a mind of a very high order. With deep and complicated reserves, yet covered by an impenetrable mask of everyday balance and harmony that was more than sufficient for the highest worldly success without beginning to exhaust its capacity or reveal its real nature. In many respects, the enigma of Jefferson, delightfully hinted at in Albert Jay Nock’s early-20th-century biography, is similar to that of his contemporary, Goethe, and likewise will remain forever inaccessible to those of us who do not enjoy the mental and moral gifts of nature in such abundance.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Texas student commits suicide after Title IX kangaroo court

Via Billy

If every other egregious example of a male student denied due process after being accused of sexual misconduct gets ignored – this one should not be.

A male student who was accused of sexual harassment committed suicide just days after the University of Texas at Arlington ignored its own policies in order to punish him. The accused student’s father, a lawyer acting as the administrator of his son’s estate, is now suing the school for violating his son’s Title IX rights.

College administrators, as well as members of the media and legislators, would do well to remember the name Thomas Klocke. Klocke, a straight male, was accused by a gay male student of writing anti-gay slurs on his computer during a class. Klocke vehemently denied the accusation, and administrators who investigated the incident acknowledged there was no evidence to support the accuser’s claims, yet Klocke was still punished.

More @ Watchdog

At Issue: Should ‘so help me, God’ be removed from government oaths?

Via Billy

Many view the concept of separation of church and state as meaning all religion must be kept out of government functions. The First Amendment allows citizens the freedom to practice any religion of their choice but also prevents Congress from officially recognizing or favoring a specific religion.

Many also maintain this country contradicts that view, going back to the Declaration of Independence. Judeo-Christian language permeates many government activities. In particular, the oath for just about every government office includes the phrase “so help me, God.”

The city of Marietta has made efforts to change that.

More @ AJC

Sessions urged to purge Obama staff from Civil Rights Division

Via Billy

Conservative scholars have urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to purge “ideological rot” that’s festered in the department’s Civil Rights Division under the Obama administration through internal reforms meant to reverse partisanship in the agency.

But liberal groups, seizing on a recommendation that political appointees rather than career bureaucrats play a role in the hiring process, argued this week that such a move would be a return to hiring practices already deemed improper and illegal under the George W. Bush administration.

The polarization over the issue underscores how much the division’s priorities can shift from one prevailing political wind to the next.

The 25 conservatives who authored the letter to the Justice Department urging reforms wrote that under the Obama administration, the Civil Rights Division “served purely ideological ends with rigidity unmatched in other federal offices.”

More @ The Washington Times

US deploys THAAD missile defence, special operatives that took out Osama bin Laden to North Korea

Via Billy

THE crack US Navy Seal team that took out Osama bin Laden is reportedly in training in South Korea, conducting “field training operations”, amid rising tension with North Korea.

South Korean media claims the famed Seal Team 6 — which killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011 — is part of the Foal Eagle and Key Resolve exercise being carried out from March 7 to April 30 in South Korea.

While US military would not confirm the reports, it said “ground, air, naval and special operations” are taking part in “several joint and combined field training operations” which involve up to 17,000 troops.

The special operations teams are thought to also include the Army Rangers, Delta Force and Green Berets. The training commenced one day after US deployed its state of the art THAAD missile defence system to the region.

South Korea’s JoongAng Daily has claimed the teams would take part in a drill to simulate the removal of Kim Jong-un — a move denied by Former US Navy Commander Gary Ross.

More @ AU

North Korea May Be Gearing Up For A Weekend Nuke Test Or Worse - China tells military to be ready to 'move' to North Korea border

Via Billy

North Korea may test a nuclear weapon this weekend, according to U.S. government sources.

The North has reportedly installed a nuclear device inside one of the tunnels at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, reports Voice of America’s Steve Herman, citing government and other sources. A provocation is expected Saturday, but it could possibly come sooner.

Saturday is the “Day of the Sun,” the 105th anniversary of the birth of North Korean founder. This would be the North’s sixth nuclear test.

“We have no comment at this time, but we will be watching closely,” a National Security Council official told VOA.

More @ The Daily Caller

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China tells military to be ready to 'move' to North Korea border 

China has ordered its military to be on nationwide alert, in addition to areas near the North Korea border, as tensions escalate on the peninsula. 

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a nongovernmental organization in Hong Kong, said Beijing has ordered troops at all five military "regions" to maintain preparedness because of the situation in North Korea, according to Oriental Daily News in Hong Kong.

According to the NGO, China's armored and mechanized infantry brigades in the provinces of Shandong, Zhejiang and Yunnan received the state mandate.

More @ UPI

Mirages of War: Six Illusions From our Recent Conflicts

 

More than 15 years of continuous combat has profoundly shaped the ways in which the U.S. military thinks about war. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have deeply colored the ways in which those who have served there now think about the very character of war — especially among the Army, Marine, and special operations forces that have borne the brunt of the fighting. Combat experience is invaluable for leaders who are responsible for fighting wars and advising policymakers on the use of force. But it also produces subconscious biases and blind spots, which may prevent them from thinking clearly and creatively about the types of wars they will fight in the future.

More @ War On The Rocks

Judicial Watch Sues EPA for Communications Records of Officials Who May Have Used Cell Phone Message Encryption App to Thwart Government Oversight

Via Billy

 

The use of Signal by EPA officials to prevent government oversight was reported in a February 2, 2017, Politico article entitled “Federal workers turn to encryption to thwart Trump.”

Suit seeks to determine whether officials used software app known as “Signal” to secretly send and receive official messages  

Judicial Watch today announced it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for communications sent or received by EPA officials who may have used the cell phone encryption application “Signal” to thwart government oversight and transparency.  The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Judicial Watch v. Environmental Protection Agency (No. 1:17-cv-00533)).

The lawsuit was filed after the EPA failed to respond to Judicial Watch’s February 3, 2017 FOIA request seeking:

More @ Judicial Watch

Police Arrest Previously Deported Illegal, Charge Him With Sexually Abusing Small Girl At Virginia Daycare

Via Billy

Fairfax County Police have arrested an illegal immigrant accused of sexually abusing a small girl five times at a daycare in Virginia.

Oscar Perez Rangel, the 40-year-old illegal from Mexico arrested Friday for the abuse, had previously been deported from the United States, WJLA reports.

Rangel abused the 12-year-old girl numerous times between October and December 2016 at the after-school daycare located in his home, which his girlfriend runs.

Fairfax County’s Office for Children revoked the daycare’s license on Monday.

More @ The Daily Caller

What about the 1.7 Million Christians in Syria? The High Risks of Syrian Regime Change

Via Mike

According the CIA Fact Book, the population of Syria is approximately 17.2 million, down 736,000 from 2014. Syria was an important center of early Christianity. In fact, the Apostle Paul had his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus. It was in Antioch in Syria that the followers of Christ were first called Christians. Various Middle Eastern branches of Christianity are estimated to total 10 percent of the Syrian population, or 1.7 million people. This includes about 170,000 who are descendents of survivors of the Armenian genocides perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks from 1894 through 1923 that resulted in the massacre or systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenian Christians.

More @ The Tribune

Fast and Furious (Gunrunner) scandal: Suspected triggerman in Brian Terry's murder arrested

Via Billy

The cartel member suspected of shooting and killing Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010 with a gun supplied by the U.S. government was arrested in Mexico Wednesday, senior law enforcement, Border Patrol, and congressional sources told Fox News.

The suspect, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was apprehended by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC).

A $250,000 reward had been sought for information leading to the arrest of Osorio-Arellanes, who was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. U.S. authorities have said they will seek his extradition.

More @ Fox

China buys more U.S. coal, sends North Korea packing

Via Billy

 

China is banning shipments of coal from North Korea because of last week's missile test and has made up the shortfall by importing more coal from the United States.

The news comes just days after President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where the administration said North Korea's missile tests would be a top priority in the talks.

Reuters first reported Tuesday that China's customs department ordered all companies that receive imports from North Korea to immediately return all coal cargoes, according to three trading sources who saw the order. The order was sent by the Chinese government on April 7, soon after Trump and Xi concluded their discussions.

More @ Washington Examiner

NATO chief: Allied spending up $10 billion because of Trump

Via Billy

 

President Trump's sharp "focus" on the need for NATO members to contribute more to the common defense is paying off, according to the alliance's top civilian official.

"We know that we all need to contribute our fair share," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a joint press conference at the White House.

Stoltenberg reminded Trump and the public that NATO allies have contributed to the defense of the Untied States, emphasizing that about 1,000 members of allied militaries have died fighting in Afghanistan. But he paired that conventional defense of NATO with a clear olive branch to Trump, who rattled international leaders during the 2016 presidential election by threatening to abandon allies who fail to contribute to the common defense.

More @ Washington Examiner

Trump Flips On Five Core Campaign Promises In Under 24 Hours

Via Terry

Blink, and you missed Trump's blistering, seamless transformation into a mainstream politician.

In the span of just a few hours, President Trump flipped to new positions on several core policy issues, backing off on no less than five repeated campaign promises.

In a WSJ interview and a subsequent press conference, Trump either shifted or completely reversed positions on a number of foreign and economic policy decisions, including the fate of the US Dollar, how to handle China and the future of the chair of the Federal Reserve.

Goodbye strong dollar and high interest rates

More @ Zero Hedge