Italy's populist government won't permit boats carrying migrants to dock, despite EU pressure

Via Billy

Italy will continue to block rescue boats carrying migrants looking to dock in its ports, its interior minister announced Saturday. The position escalates the new populist government’s fight with other European countries on migration and asylum, thorny issues that have spurred intense debate in the U.S. as well.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who is also the leader of the nationalist League Party, said in a Facebook statement Saturday that in addition to an NGO ship that was refused entry last week, two other ships have arrived off the coast of Libya -- he said those boats won't be taken, either.

More @ Fox

Abel P. Upshur

 

This essay is published in honor of Abel P. Upshur’s birthday, June 17, 1790.

Today, States’ rights are remembered as a legalistic excuse for the preservation of slavery – a part of the past best forgotten. One historian scoffs at the notion of “loyalty to the South, Southern self-government, Southern culture, or states’ rights,” declaring that “slavery’s preservation was central both to Southern politics and to the South’s withdrawal from the federal Union.” According to this Seaborg-winning professor, taking seriously what Southerners said about States’ rights is nothing more than “sepia-tinged nostalgia for the Old South.” A Pulitzer-winning historian of what he calls “a failed rebellion to preserve slavery” claims that masking the cause of slavery with an “alternative explanation” of States’ rights or Southern culture was a “psychological necessity” for Southerners.

Indeed, it is de rigueur among modern historians to discount whatever Southerners said about politics, economics, or culture as a false front for the ulterior motive of slavery.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

Sharyl Attkisson: 50 Media Mistakes in the Trump Era: The Definitive List

Via David

We the media have “fact-checked” President Trump like we have fact-checked no other human being on the planet—and he’s certainly given us plenty to write about. That’s probably why it’s so easy to find lists enumerating and examining his mistakes, missteps and “lies.”

But as self-appointed arbiters of truth, we’ve largely excused our own unprecedented string of fact-challenged reporting. The truth is, formerly well-respected, top news organizations are making repeat, unforced errors in numbers that were unheard of just a couple of years ago.

Our repeat mistakes involve declaring that Trump’s claims are “lies” when they are matters of opinion, or when the truth between conflicting sources is unknowable; taking Trump’s statements and events out of context; reporting secondhand accounts against Trump without attribution as if they’re established fact; relying on untruthful, conflicted sources; and presenting reporter opinions in news stories—without labeling them as opinions.

More @ Sharyl Attkisson

500 Days of Unleashing Our Economic Engine

 

The “mainstream media” remains riveted on alleged Trump-Russian collusion and how the Trump-Kim Jong Un deal will fail. But it mostly ignored reports on Russia-environmentalist collusion and China-environmentalist collusion – and milestones reached during the Trump administration’s first 500 days.

In that short time, the US economy has gone from the lowest labor participation rate since the 1970s to nearly the lowest Black, Hispanic and women’s unemployment rates in history. It added 223,000 jobs just last month. Many employers are struggling to find qualified workers, even though private sector salaries and benefits have been increasing to attract them. (Perhaps generous welfare and unemployment payouts still tempt too many?) More than 4 million Americans have received pay raises and/or bonuses.

More @ Townhall

Russian Army Gets the Weapons of the Future Today

 

The combat experience that Russia’s Terminator-2 tank support combat vehicle (BMPT-72) has gained in Syria has proven to be invaluable. It is being used to develop a new Terminator-3 version that will soon equip the tank support system to do things like attacking unmanned aerial vehicles (drones). Other armored vehicles and dismounted infantry in difficult terrain remain high-priority targets.

Few details are available so far. Like its predecessors, the new vehicle’s armor protection will be equivalent to that of a main battle tank, with armaments allowing it to engage virtually any enemy weapon system or unit and to fire at multiple targets at the same time. Automation makes it possible to reduce the number of crew members from 5 to 3.

More @ Strategic Culture

Giuliani: "Comey Should Go To Jail" , Biased FBI Agents "Fired And Imprisoned This Week"

 

 We've wasted $20 million on a corrupt investigation, engineered by Comey and his goons -Rudy Giuliani

Donald Trump should not sit for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, because the entire foundation of the Trump-Russia investigation is a "corrupt" scheme, according to Rudy Giuliani in a Friday interview on Fox and Friends.

Pointing to Department of Justice watchdog (OIG) report, Giuliani also says that the Hillary Clinton email investigation was a "total fix," and that both former FBI Director James Comey and FBI investigator Peter Strzok should face justice.

"The investigation that we've been reading about for a year and a half was given birth to by all of these corrupt acts by Peter Strzok, Comey," said Giuliani. "How about Comey’s leak? Why does he have a department leaking? Cause HE leaks! Admittedly! He leaked a memo to the professor. And that is the basis of this entire investigation."

More @ Zero Hedge

Northern Virginia Voters Gave the Win to Corey Stewart

 

The Virginia Republican primary yielded Corey Stewart as the opponent to face Tim Kaine in the U.S. Senate election this November.

Stewart beat Nick Freitas by a difference of 1.7% of the votes. It was a close race.

304,435 Virginians voted. 136,544 for Stewart, 131,267 for Freitas. Stewart won by 5,277 total votes.

Northern Virginia, a DC suburb, appears to have handed the victory to Corey Stewart over his liberty conservative opponent, where Stewart brought in 10,604 more votes than Freitas.

More @ Townhall

Trump's 5 Rules for Ruling the World: Trump isn’t reacting to the world. The world is reacting to him.

Via Billy

Politics has a way of turning everything upside down.

Flit over to Twitter and the same government media echo chamber that was loudly defending the Iran deal is concern trolling about strong inspections of North Korea’s nuclear program and worrying that President Trump’s suspension of military exercises is far too great of a concession to the tiny tyrant.

The clever ones ask, “What’s the difference between the Iran deal and the North Korean
negotiations”? Isn’t Trump’s stated willingness to meet with dictators a lot like Obama’s no preconditions pledge?

And then there are the trade wars. What is he thinking by upsetting the Chinese and the Europeans?

More @ Front Page

B-52s – The Last Argument of Presidents

Via  comment by Reborn on America’s ‘Secret War’ in Laos finally put to prop...

 

Boeing’s follow-on aircraft to the B-47, the B-52 Stratofortress, entered service in 1955. The Stratofortress has been in service for more than fifty years. Certainly one of the most important aircraft ever produced, it was capable of carrying a 40,000-pound payload 8,800 miles. B-52s are closely identified with the Cold War and played a leading role in the Vietnam War, even acting in support of ground operations. They are best remembered, however, for their role in the December 1972 Christmas Bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong.

More @ Weapons and  Warfare

Sophia's First Junior Lifeguard Pier jump rite of passage

 

My granddaughter and I remember when her mother did the same