Wednesday, September 20, 2017

VA Uses New Rules Under ‘VA Accountability Act’ to Fire Executive for Second Time

Via Billy

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Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) officials fired a former director of its Washington, D.C. medical center for the second time this year after Congress enacted new authorities.

The VA announced in a statement Wednesday that Hawkins had been terminated for a second time, the Washington Times reported. Brian Hawkins was fired from his executive position in July, but reinstated by the Merit Systems Protection Board. The department initially took steps to fire the director because the VA center run by Hawkins was plagued by supply problems and unsanitary conditions stemming from years of mismanagement. Hawkins, however, appealed the ruling by using federal employment laws. When he was reinstated by the protection board, VA Secretary David Shulkin moved him to an administrative position outside of patient care.

"No judge who has never run a hospital and never cared for our nation’s veterans will force me to put an employee back in a position when he allowed the facility to pose potential safety risks to our Veterans," Shulkin said at the time.

An Open Letter to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe

Via Jeffery

 https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c3/0f/90/c30f9020def8726ca51d1de0db72399d.jpghttps://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/16/57/bc/there-stands-jackson.jpg

I was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Ohio. I have taught Political Science at the collegiate level in Cincinnati, been published in The Wall Street Journal and am in my 12th year of research for a forthcoming book on Columbine.

For the past seven years I have made Rockbridge County, Virginia, my home.

The one and only reason I live in Lexington, Virginia is, because it is the final resting place of Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. Jackson. Their lives, character, faith, integrity, honor and testimony shone so brightly a century and a half after their decease, that there is no other place on the Earth I want to be, but where they lived and served.

There is something deeply and morally wrong with anyone, who objects to these two great Virginians---great Americans being honored by the native State, for which they gave their lives, limbs and blood in selfless patriotic service.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower kept Lee’s portrait in his executive office, while president. Churchill extolled him as the greatest American. Ulysses S. Grant threatened to resign from the U.S. Army, if Lee were tried for treason.

The statue that marks the grave of “Stonewall” Jackson was paid for not only by the veterans, who served under him, but by financial contributions from former slaves, whom he had taught to read in violation of Virginia law.

When a Lexington local assailed Jackson for breaking the law to “teach those people”, Jackson uncharacteristically lost his temper and shouted, “If you were a Christian you would not say so!

After the war, it was Lee who broke social convention at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, by kneeling beside a former slave, who had mortified the White congregation by kneeling at the altar.

Asked afterward by a bigot why a man like himself would kneel beside a former slave, Lee simply chastised him, “The ground is always level at the foot of the cross.

The anniversary of the deaths of Lee and of Jackson were long commemorated in this Commonwealth by veterans of the North, who were often the honored keynote speakers invited to praise the virtues of their once-foes.

Every monument to a Confederate Virginian is a war memorial to an American veteran.  It has been the mark of manhood and civility and longstanding American tradition to leave politics out of the way we honor our veterans. They fought the battles; we did not. They shed the blood; we did not.

They reconciled with their enemies; we did not.  End of subject. It is not for children born a hundred and fifty years later to re-adjudicate the past and expose to double jeopardy men their own contemporaries exonerated.

It is the height of arrogance to suppose that you know more about these men and their times than their even contemporaries. The command of God remains, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.”

 It is to God you will assuredly answer for its violation.

 If you find it impossible to respect your elders, attempt at least to revere your betters.

 The destruction of Virginia’s monuments to her war dead is sacrilege and those, who urge and execute it, are nothing more than cemetery vandals. There is no honor in this course of wanton destruction and, morally, you equate yourself with ISIS, which shares your contempt for actual culture, something you both so manifestly lack. It is more than history, more than art.

 No matter. No one will remember you in any 150 years. Nothing you do can make anything like the mark these great Virginians made on history’s ledger. Just being you another day is your own punishment and yet you still face God for what you propose to do as well. Something is deeply, horribly wrong with your soul, Sir. And you know it. So does all Virginia.

 I have strived to be civil, but you do not make it easy. Smearing reputations, slandering saints and tearing down what better men raised has zero to do with love, unity, tolerance, acceptance, diversity and coexistence. It’s just the usual political spoils game, playing one race/class/group against another to score a win at any cost. The mean, petty loathing of Virginia’s first string heroes outs you as a raging hypocrite just as you were trying to pass for intelligent. What a piece of work.

Just leave the statues, graves, monuments and memorials right where the grown-ups put them, Terry. Just fool around doing nothing, you know, like back at Georgetown. Easy.

 That’s all I ask. And about the most anybody expects of you. Aren’t you tired yet of just being the same old failure and lurching from bungled debacle to bungled debacle?

Why not shock the world: open a book, educate yourself and do something less horrible than usual. Resign, even, and leave Virginians to govern Virginia. What a concept.

Shouldn’t you be ruining Syracuse instead of Richmond?

With all due respect,

Sherwin W. Dillard

James O’Keefe Teases ‘Biggest Ever Media Investigation’ — Muses ‘People Will Be Fired’

Via Billy


In a video announcement released on Monday, Project Veritas founder and guerrilla journalist James O’Keefe warned his organization is currently operating one of the biggest ever investigations into the mainstream media’s ‘holy grail,’ promising media people will likely lose their jobs over the imminent exposé.

More with video @ The Gateway Pundit

Tillerson, Haley Clash Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Via Billy

 Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley

 UN ambassador views Tillerson effort to preserve nuke deal as undermining Trump

In a sign of the ongoing internal dissent over ending the landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, multiple sources told the Washington Free Beacon that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley have been at odds over the deal, with Trump's U.N. ambassador privately expressing dismay with Tillerson over his continued efforts to preserve the nuclear agreement.

Tillerson and Haley held a private powwow Wednesday with international leaders regarding the future of the nuclear deal, a sign of Haley's vital role in the Trump administration's key foreign policy issue.

The meeting is likely to underscore mounting tensions between Haley and Tillerson on the issue, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, who told the Free Beacon that Haley views Tillerson's efforts to preserve the deal as anathema to Trump's own policy agenda.

The division is one of several that Tillerson has sparked within the administration, particularly in the West Wing, where the secretary of state has been described as in "open war" with Trump on a series of major foreign policy issues, including Iran and the Israel-Palestinian impasse. 

The Historical Folly of “Nothing but Race.”

 
 "A judicial activist is a judge who interprets the Constitution to mean what it would have said if he, instead of the Founding Fathers, had written it.
— Sam Ervin
 
At the base of most of the ongoing political debates currently raging in the United Sates there are always, it seems, deeper questions, more philosophical and more historical contexts that need to be examined—what I would call “legacy issues.”

Oftentimes assumptions are made or are disseminated by many self-proclaimed defenders of our traditions—by those “conservative apologists”—that bear little relationship to historical reality, and, in fact, fatally weaken or blur our understanding of it.

Many of these assumptions relate specifically to the conscious creation by the present (neo) conservative movement of a utilizable past that both justifies their present practice and fends off criticism from the hard Left that somehow, because they claim to be “conservative” and presumably defenders of the Constitution and inherited traditions of the country, they partake in forms of “racism,” as well as sexism, homophobia, and white supremacy.

Far-right party shakes up German politics


 AfD is the first far-right party set to enter Germany's parliament for more than a half a century.
Gauland provoked outrage for saying at another event that Germans should no longer be reproached with the Nazi past and they should take pride in what their soldiers achieved during the World Wars.

The first far-right party set to enter Germany's parliament for more than a half a century says it will press for Chancellor Angela Merkel to be "severely punished" for opening the door to refugees and migrants.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has also called for Germany's immigration minister to be "disposed of" in Turkey where her parents come from, could become the third largest party with up to 12 per cent of the vote on September 24, polls show.

More @ Yahoo

The Welfare State's Legacy By Walter E. Williams

Via Billy

Dr. Walter E. Williams

That the problems of today’s black Americans are a result of a legacy of slavery, racial discrimination and poverty has achieved an axiomatic status, thought to be self-evident and beyond question. This is what academics and the civil rights establishment have taught. But as with so much of what’s claimed by leftists, there is little evidence to support it.

The No. 1 problem among blacks is the effects stemming from a very weak family structure. Children from fatherless homes are likelier to drop out of high school, die by suicide, have behavioral disorders, join gangs, commit crimes and end up in prison. They are also likelier to live in poverty-stricken households. But is the weak black family a legacy of slavery? In 1960, just 22 percent of black children were raised in single-parent families. Fifty years later, more than 70 percent of black children were raised in single-parent families. Here’s my question: Was the increase in single-parent black families after 1960 a legacy of slavery, or might it be a legacy of the welfare state ushered in by the War on Poverty?

More @ LRC

Trump boxed in the globalists in his UN speech

Via Billy


It's safe to say that none of his many enemies among the global elites anticipated an intellectual challenge from Donald Trump.  He doesn't look or talk or act the way they think an intellectual should.  Yet somehow, he has placed them in a box.

In his U.N. debut, he challenged the intellectual basis of the world order they are working toward.  He personally addressed many of the political leaders in the audience when he said:

    …you, as the leaders of your countries will always, and should always, put your countries first.

Hillary Clinton Gave $800K To Fund Antifa Groups

Via Billy

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After failing to become president of the United States, Hillary Clinton did what a lot of dejected politicians do: She started a super PAC. And after four months of soliciting donations, it appears that Clinton has been quietly using the money to fund resistance groups, including the militant and violent antifa.

Clinton’s PAC, Onward Together, openly partners with five left-wing political groups: Indivisible, Swing Left, Color of Change, Emerge America, and Run for Something, all of which have ties to antifa. Despite all these partners, however, the PAC website is bare-bones. There are just two tabs:

One explaining the group’s “mission,” and another asking for donations – with no indication as to where the money would go. So, in order to get to the bottom of the mystery, The Daily Caller decided to give all five antifa-linked groups a call.

Trump administration wants to make it easier for American companies to sell guns overseas

Via Billy

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The Trump administration wants to make it easier for American manufacturers to sell guns, including assault rifles, and ammunition overseas, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The wire service reported Trump aides are working on a plan to put the Commerce Department in charge of international, non-military firearms sales. Currently, the State Department is in charge of those sales.

The State Department typically is most concerned about threats to stability abroad and tightly controls weapons deals. The Commerce Department is more concerned with allowing trade to go ahead, the report stated.

Gun-Control Activists to Pour Another Million Dollars into Virginia State Elections

Via Billy

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One of the nation's leading gun-control advocacy groups announced plans on Friday to spend upwards of $1 million in the upcoming Virginia gubernatorial and attorney general races even though a similar spending effort failed to flip control of the state senate in 2015.

The Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, a New York-based gun-control group founded in large part by Michael Bloomberg, is donating $450,000 to Democrat Ralph Northam in his race against Republican Ed Gillespie. They're spending another $250,000 on mailers supporting Northam. The gun-control group is putting another $300,000 into Democrat Attorney General Mark Herring's reelection bid.

Luther Strange’s disclosure exposes double talk on immigration

Via Billy

Luther Strange_VISA

Sitting Sen. Luther Strange has found himself in the middle of a dogfight for Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat, where he faces former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Sept. 26 in a run-off that’s oft a contest of who’s the most conservative candidate.

On the immigration front, both candidates have come up pretty even.

Since going to Washington back in February, Strange has worked hard on earning his immigration stripes. In May, he introduced legislation to force sanctuary citizens to pay for the president’s border wall. “They can either follow the law,” Strange said while announcing his bill, “or fund the wall.”

What’s surprising however, is finding out the senator has a personal equity ownership in an EB-5 visa development project — a controversial program in which wealthy foreign nationals can purchase visas.

It looks like Obama did spy on Trump, just as he apparently did to me

Via Billy

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Many in the media are diving deeply into minutiae in order to discredit any notion that President Trump might have been onto something in March when he fired off a series of tweets claiming President Obama had “tapped” “wires” in Trump Tower just before the election.

According to media reports this week, the FBI did indeed “wiretap” the former head of Trump’s campaign, Paul Manafort, both before and after Trump was elected. If Trump officials — or Trump himself — communicated with Manafort during the wiretaps, they would have been recorded, too.

But we’re missing the bigger story.

More @ The Hill

Whatever Happened to America?

Via 4Branch

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Over the course of my lifetime America has become an infantile country.

When I was born America was a nation. Today it is a diversity country in which various segments divided by race, gender, and sexual preference, preach hate toward other segments. Currently white heterosexual males are losing in the hate game, but once hate is unleashed it can turn on any and every one. Working class white males understand that they are the new underclass in a diversity country in which everyone has privileges except them. Many of the university educated group of heterosexual white males are too brainwashed to understand what is happening to them. Indeed, some of them are so successfully brainwashed that they think it is their just punishment as a white male to be downtrodden.

Donald Trump’s presidency has been wrecked by hate groups, i.e., the liberal/progressive/left who hate the “racist, misogynist, homophobic, gun nut working class” that elected Trump (see Eric Draitser, “Why He Won,” in CounterPunch, vol. 23, No. 1, 2017). For the liberal/progressive/left Trump is an illegitimate president because he was elected by illegitimate voters.

Today the American left hates the working class with such intensity that the left is comfortable with the left’s alliance with the One Percent and the military/security complex against Trump.

Mitch McConnell's super PAC floods Alabama airwaves for Luther Strange +Trump & NRA

Via Billy

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The super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell dumped another $630,000 into Alabama on Wednesday for a closing television and radio advertising package highlighting President Trump's endorsement of Sen. Luther Strange.

Combined with the spot attacking Roy Moore launched earlier in the week, the Senate Leadership Fund is blanketing the Alabama airwaves with a massive 2,000 gross ratings points push in the final week of the special GOP primary runoff; election day is Tuesday. Gross ratings points measure how frequently an ad is played, and 1,000 for one week is considered the standard amount required to ensure voters are able to view an ad at least once, if not more than once.

Pier Weekly September 20, 2017





















 Loyal PATCON attendee

First Motocross! :

Two loyal Confederates. :)

How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America by Brion McClanahan, Foreword by Ron Paul

 

A review of How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America by Brion McClanahan, Regnery History, 2017.

A thinking American must choose between Hamilton and Jefferson, whose contrary visions of the future were contested in the first days of the Constitution. If you are happy with big government, big banks, big business, big military, and judicial dictatorship, then you have Alexander Hamilton to thank. His legacy of nationalism, centralisation, crony capitalism, and military-industrial complex is all around us.

If you prefer the Jeffersonian version of an American regime (or even if you don’t), Brion McClanahan’s new book is for you—How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America. McClanahan, who is proving to be one of the ablest truly relevant historians of our time, has given us a definitive, deeply-researched chapter and verse and long perspective of who this bad man was and how he is, Constitutionally, the fountain of our current discontents.

When Hillary Clinton called we Americans “deplorables” (in contrast to the rich foreign sophisticates who surround her) she was simply channeling Alexander Hamilton who said that “the people are a great beast.”