Friday, May 12, 2017

Panasonic DMC-ZS100 Digitally Digested Review

Replaced my LX-7 after 10 years. You can get it for $512, but the warranty is with the seller in Asia which is where I bought mine.

CAUGHT RED HANDED: WHCA Member Jon Decker Caught In Conspiracy – MSM Monopolize Entire WH Briefing w/ Conspiracies

Via Billy


Well, another day and more highly predictable childlike behavior from the MSM. No wonder their readership is at an all-time low. Shortly after General McMaster spoke to the room, reaffirming the Administration’s commitment to both domestic and national security, Sean Spicer returned to the White House briefings and you’ll never guess what happened.  Yup, he was almost instantly met with more “TRUMP TWEETED!” outrage from prominent members of the White House Correspondents Association, a group of “journalists” who were sycophantic during the Obama years and have since then tried with all their power to demean and disparage the Trump Administration.
Trump’s tweets were mentioned a staggering 16 times during the briefing, consuming the entire hour with liberal paranoia and conspiracy. One reporter went as far as to ask if Trump’s relatively innocuous tweet was a “threat”!

Inside Vietnam: A land of serenity, chaos, charm and beauty

Via David

Kieran Prendiville, pictured here pondering lunch, went to Vietnam with one of his oldest friends: Jimmy, an Australian who has written books about Aussie ¿Tunnel Rat¿ troops in the Vietnam war, and organised several tours for veterans

On a balmy evening by the shore of a lake in the centre of Hanoi, we sat enraptured as Su-Su sang to us, just the two of us. Meanwhile, in the red glow from a nearby floodlit Buddhist temple, couples sedately practised their newly acquired ballroom dance steps. Strictly Vietnam.

We imagined Su-Su thought we were a couple, as two middle-aged men together on holiday could only be. In fact, I’d gone to Vietnam with one of my oldest friends: Jimmy, an Australian who has written books about Aussie ‘Tunnel Rat’ troops in the Vietnam war, and organised several tours for veterans.

But really, this was just a pair of old hacks on an adventure without our womenfolk, fired up by a rereading of The Quiet American. We sought our inner Graham Greene, but after much beer-fuelled analysis of old England versus Australia Test matches, we settled for our inner Graham Gooch.

More @ Daily Mail

Whistleblowers: James Comey Seized and Buried Information Showing Donald Trump’s Phone Calls Were Spied On

Via Billy

 Image result for Whistleblowers: James Comey Seized and Buried Information Showing Donald Trump’s Phone Calls Were Spied On

Former FBI director James Comey seized and buried volumes of information that demonstrated a wide-ranging government surveillance operation targeting Donald Trump before he became president.

Big League Politics has learned that Larry Klayman, attorney for former NSA and CIA contractor and whistleblower Dennis Montgomery, delivered to the FBI 47 hard drives and data amounting to more than 600 million pages of documentation on the surveillance scheme. Then-FBI director James Comey’s general counsel James Baker took the data into his possession, according to multiple sources. But despite possessing Montgomery’s bombshell whistleblower revelations, Comey never acted on or publicized the information.

Report: Obama Gave Information To Liberal Senator Meant To Bring Down Trump

Via Billy

Report: Obama Gave Information To Liberal Senator Meant To Bring Down Trump

According to Judicial Watch
The Obama Administration reportedly spread information about alleged Russian efforts to undermine the 2016 presidential election:
There was also an effort to pass reports and other sensitive materials to Congress. In one instance, the State Department sent a cache of documents marked “secret” to Senator Benjamin Cardin of Maryland days before the Jan. 20 inauguration. The documents, detailing Russian efforts to intervene in elections worldwide, were sent in response to a request from Mr. Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and were shared with Republicans on the panel.

O’Reilly Gives First Interview Since Leaving Fox, Tells Glenn Beck It Was An Organized Hit

Via Billy


O’Reilly said, “This was a hit. In the weeks to come, we’re going to be able to explain some of it. It has to do with destroying voices that the far left and the organized left-wing cabal doesn’t like. That’s the general tone. I can’t get specific. There’s a lot of legality here.”
He said soon he will expose, “this crew that goes in and terrorizes sponsors, that threatens people behind the scenes, that pays people to say things, we are going to name them, and it’s going to be a big big story.”

He added “I’ll point you to an article that was very very seldom seen this week about nine corporations, big corporations that are now being targeted by organized left-wing groups funded by George Soros because they allegedly are profiting from President Trump’s immigration stance. You can Google the article. That gives you your roadmap.”

Pictures from a North Vietnamese 'Re-education' Camp & "CRAZY MAN"

Via Do Lam Son

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On a brighter note:
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Lt. Hoang Trong Nghia is a helicopter gunship pilot whose commander calls him a "crazy man" because he likes to dive straight into enemy ground fire. Nghia says he does it because "It makes the VC nervous". The 24 year old Nghia, who speaks English with a southern drawl was trained to fly American Huey gunships at Ft. Rucker, AL and Ft. Welter, TX
6 August 1971
AP Wirephoto (Holger Jensen)
From FB Nathan Nguyen's post

Comey declines to testify before Senate committee

Via Billy

 Image result for Comey declines to testify before Senate committee


Former FBI Director James Comey has declined an invitation to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee next week, a spokesman for the committee confirmed to Fox News Friday.

Comey had been invited to testify before a closed session in the wake of his controversial firing by President Trump earlier this week, but declined to do so.

Trump fired Comey Tuesday after receiving a recommendation to do so by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, citing his handling of the Clinton email probe last year. However, Trump later clarified that he would have fired Comey even without Rosenstein’s recommendation.

Democrats and some Republicans have expressed concern at the timing of the probe, noting the FBI’s current investigation into alleged interference by the Russian government in the U.S. presidential election.

Did Trump set up Comey? President warns ousted FBI boss there might be 'tapes' of their conversations after insisting the top Fed assured him he WASN'T being investigated over Russian links

Via Billy

Donald Trump warned former FBI director James Comey that their conversations may have been preserved on 'tape'

Donald Trump lobbed a veiled threat at the former FBI director on Friday, hinting that some of their conversations before his firing may have been recorded.

'James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!' the president tweeted.

It's unclear whether Trump was warning that the White House is recording his calls, or if he believes the FBI may have been recording Comey's. 

But Comey, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed source, is 'not worried about any tapes' of conversations between him and the president. 'If there is a tape, there's nothing he is worried about.'

More @ Daily Mail

Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy

Via Billy

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed his federal prosecutors Thursday to charge defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties.

In a speech Friday, Sessions said the move was meant to ensure that prosecutors would be “un-handcuffed and not micromanaged from Washington” as they worked to bring the most significant cases possible.

“We are returning to the enforcement of the laws as passed by Congress, plain and simple,” Sessions said. “If you are a drug trafficker, we will not look the other way, we will not be willfully blind to your misconduct.”

While working as a prop boy, John Wayne met Wyatt Earp; He later credited his walk, talk, and persona to his acquaintance with Earp

Via Cousin Colby


Since the dawn of film, the indigenous American art form known as the Western genre shaped American society and throughout the years it became an iconic part of American culture. Considered by many as one of America’s few original art forms, the Western genre defined the early days of the expansive American frontier, mostly in the last part of the 19th century.

Western movies portray dangerous adventures in the wilderness, beautiful landscapes, lonesome cowboys, gunfights, saloons, ranch houses, and conflicts between white settlers and Native Americans.

NC Ranked #1 for the Third Year in a row for Economic Competitiveness

 2017 GLOBAL BEST TO INVEST

North Carolina winning the Prosperity Cup again this year will come as a shock to some. It tied with Texas for the win in 2016 and placed first in 2015, when the ranking was still known as the Top Competitive States. The state’s strong showing in this measure of state economic development agency effectiveness is not new (see the methodology on page 102). But it may confound those who had written off the Tar Heel State as a business-climate backwater after its House Bill 2 — the “bathroom bill” — sat on the books from March 2016 until a compromise bill cleared the air in late March 2017.

Five Reasons to Support Gun-Free Zones in Schools

 

Okay, the following list is a bunch of excerpts I’ve taken from an Op-Ed in The Ambler Gazette, titled, “Another View: School Personnel Should Not Carry Guns” written by Sara Johnson Rothman of the Upper Dublin School Board.

Rothman wrote this a few weeks ago in opposition to a Pennsylvania bill, SB 383, that would give school boards the power to “establish a policy permitting school personnel access to firearms in the buildings or on the grounds of a school” for the purpose of the “protection and defense of pupils.”
As always I suggest you read her full response but for the sake of convenience I’ve pulled out the nuts and bolts and slapped on a title to each excerpt.

1. Scalia Endorsed It

 More @ Guns America

Trump on Jackson

 

Historians and pundits came out in droves decrying President Trump’s recent claim that Andrew Jackson could have negotiated a peaceful resolution to the Civil War.  Infusing their alarm was Trump’s clumsy chronology connecting Jackson to the Civil War and his optimism that the war could have been averted.
This is what Trump said:
…Had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War. He was a very tough person, but he had a big heart. He was really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War. He said, “There’s no reason for this.” People don’t realize, you know, the Civil War — if you think about it, why? People don’t ask that question, but why was there a Civil War? Why could that one not have been worked out?
In unison critics concluded that Trump is historically illiterate, positively ignorant, and yes, of course, hopelessly racist.  Historians Thomas Foster and Margaret Storey of DePaul University illustrate these type reactions.  “One could dismiss this as simple (if shocking) illiteracy.  But historical illiteracy is not a joke, and we dismiss it at our peril.  …Our president … wields his ignorance like a weapon.”  Moreover, Trump only uses history to further his denial “that slavery was at the core of the Civil War.”  For good measure they dish out the ultimate insult, connecting Trump with those who “deny other historical atrocities, including the Holocaust.”[1]  If this is how these historians draw evidence from sources, I am not impressed.

There is nothing in Trump’s statement that unequivocally indicates he did not understand the chronology of events.  In fact, his statement shows he did understand.  He stated that “had Andrew Jackson been a little later, you wouldn’t have had the Civil War.”  Trump clearly understands that Jackson and the war were not parallel in time.  Granted, his wording is fuzzy, something that can easily happen in an on-the-spot interview.  But for so many to respond in a condescending way, says more to me about their own trigger-happy arrogance than about Trump’s ignorance.