Thursday, October 4, 2018

I am an Independent, Impartial Judge

Via John

 United States Supreme Court Building in the evening light of sunset.
 Image result for kavanaugh family hearing

Yes, I was emotional last Thursday. I hope everyone can understand I was there as a son, husband and dad.

 
I was deeply honored to stand at the White House July 9 with my wife, Ashley, and my daughters, Margaret and Liza, to accept President Trump’s nomination to succeed my former boss and mentor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, on the Supreme Court. My mom, Martha—one of the first women to serve as a Maryland prosecutor and trial judge, and my inspiration to become a lawyer—sat in the audience with my dad, Ed.

That night, I told the American people who I am and what I believe. I talked about my 28-year career as a lawyer, almost all of which has been in public service. I talked about my 12 years as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often called the second most important court in the country, and my five years of service in the White House for President George W. Bush. I talked about my long record of advancing and promoting women, including as a judge—a majority of my 48 law clerks have been women—and as a longtime coach of girls’ basketball teams.

More @ WSJ

A-1 SKYRAIDER "FLYING DUMPTRUCK" / "SANDY" S.A.R. MISSION IN VIETNAM

Via KhaiCo Vu



 This segment of "Air Force Now" features the A-1 Skyraider in action inVietnam with the First Special Operations Squadron also known as the "Hobos". In this instance the Skyraider is seen flying cover for "Jolly Green Giant" rescue helicopters performing search and rescue operations.

As American involvement in the Vietnam War began, the A-1 Skyraider was still the medium attack aircraft in many carrier air wings, although it was planned to be replaced by the A-6A Intruder as part of the general switch to jet aircraft. Skyraiders from Constellation and Ticonderoga participated in the first U.S. Navy strikes against North Vietnam on 5 August 1964 as part of Operation Pierce Arrow in response to the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, striking against fuel depots at Vinh, with one Skyraider from Ticonderoga damaged by anti-aircraft fire, and a second from Constellation shot down, killing its pilot.

As they were released from U.S. Navy service, Skyraiders were introduced into the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). They were also used by the USAF to perform one of the Skyraider's most famous roles: the "Sandy" helicopter escort on combat rescues. USAF Major Bernard F. Fisher piloted an A-1E on 10 March 1966 mission for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor for rescuing Major "Jump" Myers at A Shau Special Forces Camp. USAF Colonel William A. Jones, III piloted an A-1H on 1 September 1968 mission for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor. In that mission, despite damage to his aircraft and suffering serious burns, he returned to his base and reported the position of a downed U.S. airman.

After November 1972, all A-1s in U.S. service in Southeast Asia were transferred to the South Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF) and their roles taken over by the subsonic LTV A-7 Corsair II. The Skyraider in Vietnam pioneered the concept of tough, survivable aircraft with long loiter times and large ordnance loads. The USAF lost 201 Skyraiders to all causes in Southeast Asia, while the Navy lost 65 to all causes. Of the 266 lost A-1s, five were shot down by surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), and three were shot down in air-to-air combat; two by North Vietnamese MiG-17s.

In contrast to the Korean War, fought a decade earlier, the U.S. Air Force used the naval A-1 Skyraider for the first time in Vietnam. As the Vietnam War progressed, USAF A-1s were painted in camouflage, while USN A-1 Skyraiders were gray/white in color; again, in contrast to the Korean War, when A-1s were painted dark blue.

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Saigon Girls

Via Philippe

 Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, outdoor 

Could be Thuỷ and in the 70's. 

 

Your humble photographer with and Thuý going to a restaurant. My '69 Datsun Bluebird in the foreground. The Saigon Central Market in the background.

Why Was General Earl Van Dorn Murdered?

 

In some ways, historians are like anyone else: they hate to make mistakes. But if you write enough, sooner or later, you will make a mistake—I assure you. I certainly have, but I have been more fortunate than most. Sometimes, mistakes benefit you. What I suppose are my two most significant errors to date came more than two decades apart, and both had overall positive results.

In the late 1980s, I wrote a book entitled Hitler’s Legions. In it, I accepted as fact a U.S. Army intelligence report which stated Generalleutnant Josef Folttmann was killed near Belfort Gap in November 1944. (I was just starting out as a historian in those days and the report was written by the same intelligence officers who gave us the Battle of the Bulge three weeks later, but I did not take that into consideration.) Shortly after Legions was published, Friedrich-Theodor von Stauffenberg wrote to me, corrected me, and informed me that Hans Oschmann was the general who was killed in the battle in question. When I asked him if he was sure, Stauffenberg sent me a copy of a book General Folttmann wrote in 1957—13 years after I killed him off. It listed Oschmann as killed on the date I cited.

"....how will Americans deal with the existential storm awaiting them?

 Postcards-f_feature

Tet Offensives, Hungry China and Dumbed Down Americans

 With their brief existence, and dumbed down now by a degraded and warped education, most Americans have a telescoped and cartoony sense of history, so nothing matters, really, beyond the last two or three presidential elections, and each foreign country is represented, at most, by a caricature or two, so Germany is Hitler and Merkel, China is Mao and Xi, Russia is Lenin, Stalin and Putin, Japan is no-name-comes-to-mind, Korea is Little Rocket Man, Vietnam is Ho Chee Mann and Mexico, right next door, is, ah, Speedy Gonzales. Having no historical depth, many Americans will claim that China, for example, is a peace loving and fair-minded civilization that shuns invasions and genocides, but you couldn’t have become the most populous nation on earth without gobbling up many lesser ones, and China’s appetite will only increase as its girth balloons even further. To thrive, it will need a chain of vassals and colonies, same as it ever was.

Trailer: Dummycrats Featuring Diamond and Silk In Theaters Oct 15


 Dummycrats

As President Trump continues to drain the swamp, social media stars Diamond & Silk are on a mission to expose what’s left of it. Americans cannot trust the mainstream media to report about the Democrats Dummycrats. If the media won’t report the truth…Diamond & Silk will.

Dummycrats documents the duo’s journey across America to reveal the hypocrisy spewed by progressive, big government loving politicians on the left. With their boots on the ground, Diamond & Silk scour California in the search of Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi. Unable to find the answers the American people need, the ladies travel to D.C. Meanwhile, they send Kyle Olson to El Paso to uncover the dangers that come with open borders to reveal how the Democrats put the interests of lawbreakers above those of American citizens.

With laughs, tears and anger, Dummycrats takes you on a journey for truth, stepping on the political antics of the left to get answers that the American people deserve -- as only Diamond & Silk can!

McConnell lashes out at 'uncorroborated mud' thrown at Kavanaugh, Grassley knocks press for 'bias' in Kavanaugh reporting & Flake, Collins look to vote Yes.

Via Billy

 McConnell lashes out at 'uncorroborated mud' thrown at Kavanaugh

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lashed out at Democrats in a furious floor speech on Thursday about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, arguing the allegations against him are "uncorroborated mud."

McConnell spoke just hours after senators began reviewing a report from the FBI on the allegations, which Democrats quickly criticized as lacking breadth.

“The fact is that these allegations have not been corroborated," said McConnell, who on Wednesday night filed a motion to end debate on Kavanaugh's nomination. "None of these allegations have been corroborated by the seventh FBI investigation."

More @ The Hill


Darkest Political Forces Unleashed If Kavanaugh Taken Down, Graham Warns

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If  SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh is successfully taken out of contention, it could usher in the darkest era of American political tactics from both sides of the aisle, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned Democrats.


“It’s time to vote, I keep telling my colleagues,” Graham told Capitol Hill reporters during comments regarding the highly contentious nomination process of Judge Kavanaugh. “If this is the new normal, God help us all.”

More @ NewsWars

The Speech I Never Gave

Via David

 

Sweden's Islamic invasion catalyzed by the death of free speech. 

 

A few prefatory words: I was invited to give a talk in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday, September 29, as part of an “Alternative Book Fair.” The Gothenburg Book Fair was being held that weekend, and the point of the alternative event was to highlight books – mostly about Islam, I gathered – that the official fair had rejected. I was asked to talk about freedom of speech, a freedom that is in increasingly short supply in Sweden, as elsewhere in Western Europe. As if to prove the point, civic officials – at the urging of police, who were spooked by Antifa threats – banned the “Alternative Book Fair.” Here's what I planned to say. 

When I was twenty years old, there was a famous free-speech case in the state of Illinois. Nazis wanted to march in a Chicago suburb called Skokie, which had a large population of Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors. Skokie sued successfully in county court to prevent the march. The Nazis, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, took the case to the state appellate court and the Illinois Supreme Court. Long story short, after the case had gone to the United States Supreme Court, the Nazis were allowed to march.

More @ Front Page

Revealed: FBI Collusion With DNC Attorneys Over Dossier

Via Billy


The bureau failed to disclose the partisan nature of the dossier to the FISA court.


Meanwhile, in the swamp, the whole Trump/Russia collusion fiasco continues to simmer in the background. The latest revelation is that former FBI general counsel James Baker met with Democrat National Committee lawyers to discuss the Russia investigation and the infamous Christopher Steele dossier before the bureau secured a FISA warrant to surveil Donald Trump’s campaign. Yes, that would be the Clinton/DNC-funded dossier that formed the primary basis for the FBI’s warrant request. In fact, Baker met with the same private DNC law firm — Perkins Coie — that served as the passthrough for Clinton cash to get to Fusion GPS for that dossier.

It would seem uncorroborated “evidence” is a theme for Democrats to smear a political enemy.

Trump approval rating jumps to 50%

Via Billy

 Image result for Trump approval rating jumps to 50%


The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 50% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. Forty-nine percent (49%) disapprove. 
The latest figures include 37% who Strongly Approve of the way Trump is performing and 40% who Strongly Disapprove. This gives him a Presidential Approval Index rating of -3. (see trends).

Rand Paul’s Wife:" I now keep a loaded gun by my bed"

 

Senator Rand Paul’s wife has spoken out in regards to the growing trend of harassment and actual physical violence against Republicans and conservatives, revealing that her family has experienced ‘horrific’ threats in recent months.

Kelley Paul penned an open letter to Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who previously encouraged activists to “get up in the face of some congresspeople”.

More @ NewsWars

White House NO CORROBORATION: WH Says FBI Investigation Comes Up Empty On Kavanaugh Accusations, WSJ Reports

 



The White House has found no corroboration of the sexual assault allegations levied at Judge Brett Kavanaugh by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

According to a WSJ report, the FBI investigation yielded no evidence to support Blasey Ford’s claims against Kavanaugh.

This news comes on the heels of Mitch McConnell’s latest move: advancing the nomination of Judge Kavanaugh by filing the motion for cloture.