Sunday, October 15, 2017

HS Marching Band Walks Off Field During National Anthem

Via Billy

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Ames High School has the unfortunate distinction of having one of the most un-American marching bands in the nation.

More than a dozen members of the band linked arms and walked off the football field Friday night during a performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” An untold number of other band members refused to play their instruments.

It was absolutely disgraceful. Sickening.

The children who staged the musical insurrection told local reporters they did so to protest all sorts of social maladies.

More @ Todd Starnes

Rand Paul: Congress needs to be 'the boldest we can' with tax reform to compete with other countries

Via Billy

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Sen. Rand Paul called on Congress Sunday to be bold when it comes to drafting and passing comprehensive tax reform.

"I really think that we've gotta do the most we can and the boldest we can because we need to compete with all these other countries," Paul said to reporters after golfing with President Trump.

"Everybody's lowering their corporate tax ... We really, you know, need to do it. And I think [Trump] wants it to be as big and bold as possible."

Paul said it was feasible to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent to 20 percent, as laid out by the GOP's reform plan, because it had worked in other jurisdictions.

"Some are worried, 'Oh if we do a 20 percent corporate tax,'" Paul said. "My goodness, Ireland is at 12 [percent], thinking about going to 8. You've got Canada at 15."
se individuals and small businesses could band together to buy health association plans across state lines.

FBI Investigating ‘Suspicious Package,’ Bomb Threats That Shut Down Virginia Civil War Event

 civil war reenactment

 Breitbart

The FBI is investigating the “suspicious package” and bomb threats that caused an evacuation at one of Virginia’s oldest, largest, and longest-running Civil War reenactments, Saturday.

The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office shut the event down after a visitor found a “suspicious package” near the Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park around 4 p.m. Saturday.

Due to its proximity to the Civil War reenactment, the sheriff’s office evacuated the event and shut down the festivities, a local NBC affiliate reported.

Authorities soon rendered the device safe, and no one was reported harmed. Participants were allowed back after police scanned the area for additional threats.

The sponsors of the event, the Cedar Creek Battlefield Association, had acknowledged that threats were made before the event began and had already arranged for increased security. The sponsors posted a notice to that effect on the event website several days ago.

“We would like to make everyone aware that the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation has received a letter threatening bodily harm to attendants of this event,” the event website read. “With this in mind security has been increased, and we ask that everyone work with us for a safe and enjoyable event. Please pardon the inconvenience as you may experience increased security measures when enjoying the event.”

After the incident with the device, Sunday’s activities were canceled.

This year’s event was set to commemorate the 153rd anniversary of the Battle of Cedar Creek and the event has been held annually since 1990. The reenactment is one of the largest annual events in the region drawing each year between 3,000 and 5,000 reenactors from all over the east and near Midwest as well as Canada.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.

What's behind Trump's new executive actions

Via Billy

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President Trump's most recent high-profile executive actions -- on Obamacare, immigration, and the Iran nuclear deal -- do three big things.

First, they push Congress to act, which involves more than just calling the bluff of Republican leaders who talked big during the Obama years but failed to produce once the GOP controlled both Congress and White House. In a larger sense, Trump's actions point toward restoring a proper balance of power in which Congress makes law on issues that are clearly its constitutional responsibility. The president is using executive authority to pressure lawmakers to exercise appropriate legislative authority.

Second, Trump has reinforced what many of his supporters find most appealing about him -- that he can act as a leader not clearly aligned with either party.

And third, Trump's actions galvanize support among some of Washington's most conservative lawmakers and thinkers, even some who have been highly critical of him in the past.

NC: Confederate monuments honor the common man

Via Carl

http://www.thetimesnews.com/storyimage/NC/20150711/NEWS/150719813/AR/0/AR-150719813.jpg


I am writing this letter in response to an editorial by Judy Baker. Like Baker, I am a proud Southerner. I was born in Burlington. I raised my family here. Both sides of my family have been in North Carolina for more than 300 years. I had ancestors who plowed a living out of the wilderness. I had ancestors who fought on the side of the Regulators at Alamance and later in the revolution. And yes, I had ancestors that fought for the Old North State in the so-called civil war. You might say I am vested in the community.

 North Carolina was one of the last states to secede from the federal union. Twice prior to her actual secession she had declined to hold a secession vote because she did want to stay in the union. She only decided to leave (along with Virginia, Arkansas, and Tennessee) after shots were exchanged at Fort Sumter. When President Lincoln called for North Carolina to supply troops to suppress South Carolina, she refused. She felt that it was unconstitutional for the general government to coerce a state. She knew that remaining neutral was no longer an option. She was about to be attacked by the same government she had a hand in forming.

North Carolina was also one of the last states to ratify the constitution. She was afraid of trading that newly won freedom for rule by another tyrant close to home. She refused to ratify it until the bill of rights was added. She did not believe that ratification of the constitution meant relinquishing her sovereignty. The deed to the state had never been purchased by nor relinquished to the general government. The act of secession should not have resulted in a war to enforce a voided contract.

No state gave more to the Confederacy in supplies, money, or men. We supplied almost twice the men for the South as any other state. The conflict touched every community. Out of 125,000 men who left for war, more than 40,000 never came back. We lost 300 in Alamance County. Whether they volunteered or were conscripted matters little. When the state asked, they went. They did their duty for their state regardless of any reservations they may have had.

Baker and others make the assertion that our Confederate statue, as well as others, was erected as a symbol of white supremacy and not to commemorate our brave soldiers. I disagree. It was erected to remember the fallen and to honor all that served. While you can find evidence of racism throughout history, I find no ties of supremacist groups to our monument.

Our monument was raised during a time when hundreds of monuments were being erected across the South. That time was when most of the old veterans were dying and the younger people wanted to honor them, much the same as with WWII veterans today. The generation that lived through it did not need reminders. During Reconstruction (military occupation), any tribute to Confederate soldiers would have been impossible to erect. Also for the generation of the war there was no money for anything as frivolous as a monument. It took nine years of collecting pennies, nickels, and dimes to raise the $2,200 for our monument. The war broke the South and it has been a poorer region ever since. Any perceived correlation between the erection of monuments and white supremacy movements is purely academic and upholds the first rule of statistics: correlation does not imply cause.

We have been a divided country since our founding; Patriots vs. Tories, Federalist vs. Anti-federalist, Jefferson vs. Hamilton, North vs. South, not to mention our political parties. Some things cannot be reconciled. That doesn’t mean we cannot live together and agree to disagree. We are still fighting the war over the narrative. Obviously everyone’s perspective is different, but the victor always controls the history.

We fought for the Constitution as we understood it. We fought for what we thought was right. We fought to protect home and family. These things need no apology. The cause may have been lost, but that doesn’t make these reasons any less valid. People with no ties here may not understand or care. If it is not your heritage you are not vested in it. That being said, these men deserve honor of their service and sacrifice. If we do not honor our own it is for sure that no one else will.

Mitchell S. Flinchum was born in Burlington and has lived in the area for 55 years. He was educated at Elon University and University of North Carolina-Greensboro and has practiced accounting for 33 years.

How a Washington Bureaucrat Tricked President Trump

Via Billy


For several months, the worst-kept secret in Washington has been that Richard Cordray, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first director, will resign and enter the 2018 Ohio governor’s race. The best-kept secret may be that Cordray decided not to resign the day Donald Trump was elected, and pulled off a spectacular political hoax with some unintentional help from the president’s advisers.

Cordray did hope to run to replace term-limited Ohio governor John Kasich when it appeared that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election and Democrats would retain control of the agency they created through the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. But for seven years, the CFPB’s unique structure—an independent agency whose single director the president can fire only for cause, and whose funding through Federal Reserve Bank profits circumvents the congressional appropriation process—has allowed the bureau to reject Republican job applicants, operate in secrecy, and stonewall congressional oversight. When Clinton lost, Cordray knew his Republican successor would uncover the politically devastating truth about the CFPB.

"Fighting to save a culture, that exists in memory only?"

Comment by Badger on “Confederaphobia–An American Epidemic”

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Mammy, and Great Aunt Dixie. Great Aunt Dixie would have been 44 and Mammy was probably between 62 and 66. My Black, North Carolina Kinfolk

 Brock, I think, you, I, and many others are fighting to save something already lost. We are trying to save American culture. But I’m afraid, it is mostly gone already. It wasn’t destroyed by leftists and Marxists. It was destroyed by corporate mergers and buyouts. When younger, I traveled a lot with my wife. I loved going to different parts of America and enjoying the local culture.

One of the big losses, most young people do not realize, is the homogenization of our food. One did not have to travel far from home to find regional brands. One of the biggest was soda, or pop. Every part of this country had local brands. Now it’s Pepsi, Mountain Dew, or Coke. All the local bottlers are gone. I loved stopping at a gas station and tasting the local selections. All different and all good…mostly.

Now days, you can walk into a grocery store anywhere in America and only buy the same brands. Regional America is gone. Oh, sure there are a few local brands but overall, they are gone. They were bought and closed by the big corporations. Or forced out of business by the same corporations.

Now we see regional history being erased. And history in general being eliminated and rewritten. I’m not sure everyone across America had the same style education, as I did. We learned American and world history from books. But we also learned local history. We learned about the people towns and cities were named after. John Deere, was born close to here and their main offices are here. We learned about him. No, it was not a huge part of our education. But we did learn local history. That had ended by the time my daughter went to school. Again, forced homogenization in education. All children learning the same things. This I blame mostly on the federal government. But corporations also have a hand. Through mergers and buyouts, there is only one or two school book publishers left. No competition, and they only produce books approved in California. We are screwed there.

Radio, there was a time when every station was local. They had local people producing and broadcasting. Today, almost every station is part of some conglomerate. All their content comes from the East or West coast. Again, the same blandness coast to coast. All America receiving the same programming.

Television, the same. Other than a local news once or twice a day, everything is produced on the coasts. Again, all America is programed by a few. Another source of group-think.

Sadly, I think we may have already lost. The regional diversities of America are mostly gone. They are only memories, to those of us old enough to remember. Southern culture is (and soon to be was) the only hugely cultural distinction, that still survived. We watched, unknowing as our culture was being destroyed. I am afraid, we are fighting to save a culture, that exists in memory only.

--Badger

Las Vegas Massacre Survivor Abruptly Dies Just Days After Posting Eyewitness Account Of Multiple Shooters And Subsequent Cover-Up

Via Billy

victim

A woman by the name of Kymberley Suchomel, 28, who attended the Oct. 1 Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, passed away Monday at her Apple Valley home just days after she had survived the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history unscathed, according to multiple mainstream media reports.
 
Suchomel, who posted her eyewitness account of the Las Vegas massacre in astonishingly vivid detail to her Facebook page on Oct. 4, subsequently passed away in her home on Oct. 9 from what reports are claiming are ‘natural causes.’

Shockingly, just days before her death, Suchomel posted key details about the shooting to Facebook that contradicted the official narrative which claims that Stephen Paddock was the lone gunman.

“From about 50 feet in front of us, and a little to the right, fire crackers were set off. Let me repeat that… FIRE CRACKERS WERE SET OFF. I verbally stated “some asshole just shot of fire crackers in close proximity to so many people”. I was literally pissed off. You could see Jason Aldean look to his left kind of startled by it, but he was also clearly irritated. I would say about 15 seconds later, the first volley of gunfire was released,” the eyewitness wrote.

She went on…

More @ SHTF Plan