GOP presidents are failures before they’re sworn in, and Democrats are successes after eight years of failure.

Style Versus Substance:

After 8 years of posturing, posing, prevaricating, pandering, and just plain lying, are We The People ready for plain Jane, unadulterated, a little rough around the edges and definitely not smooth? Can we handle the regular Joe versus, the actor in chief? Is it possible for us to have respect for someone who sounds more like us than Jean Luc Picard on his mission into the unknown?

So many questions but the answers are far less complex than we can imagine. There is a hunger within each of us that cries out for truth and we have been denied it for a long time by the news media and its commitment to an agenda/philosophy driven manipulation of the people. Mr. Trump may not be smooth, but we can trust and then verify what he says. The media folks want to lie to us in a fashion that shows that they are our moral superiors, those who should have the rule over us through their elite positions. I trust them as far as I can throw them.

We have a great responsibility now to not only trust, but verify as one of the better Presidents told us, but also to hold our leadership to a level of performance that would warrant our trust. That means that we need to tell them what we want at all times. When they stray from the path that we have placed them on and drift from their promises, we must loudly protest and with gusto demand that they get back to the basic principles that they told us guided them. Laziness on our part may have aided in the process of the marxification of the White House. Not taking care of our foundational responsibilities in the education arena might have led to the capture of the system by socialists and atheists and the drift to the left that is captivating our children. Again, time to stand up and grab hold of the rudder of that ship and get it back on course. If that means private schools, then sacrifice for it, if it means home schooling, then do as God directs.

You want America to be great again? The its up to you to "make it so". This is work for the committed, not the coddled. Time for the worker in all of us to get to work, righting the wrongs, tearing down the strongholds, and being an example of what is important in this life and the life to come for our children and future generations. Wouldn't it be great to know that history may record our time on the planet as the "great resurgence of first principles". A time remembered fondly and proudly as the time when America restored its roots and found its focus again. May God help us to make it so.

- Dr. Jim Garrow -

Get Ready, 4200 minutes and countingr. In the immortal works of Moriarty on Sherlock Sunday Night, TICK TOCK TICK TOCK TICK TOCK..

DOES DONALD J TRUMP CARRY THE JEREMIAH 1:10 MANDATE?

I had Donald Trump all wrong. He's not here to get along, he's here to tear down before building up. It is the work of an iconoclast. It's also a prophetic mandate.

This came to me when i was hearing the wail of liberals on how a LIBERAL CIVIL RIGHTS ICON LIKE JOHN LEWIS was being torn down by Donald Trump. Then it hit me, he is a classical iconoclast. A breaker of images. His tackling the press is this.

He represents the mandate of God given to Jeremiah the Prophet:

"See, I have this day appointed you to the oversight of the nations and of the kingdoms to root out and pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant".

Jeremiah 1:10.

While he is not a prophet, he does carry a mantel to tear down..a breaker anointing to overthrow the established order. The work of an Iconoclast. Not all iconoclasts are prophets, but all prophets must at their core be iconoclasts

iconoclast defined:

Are you always challenging the establishment? Or provoking popular thought by attacking traditions and institutions? Then you may be an iconoclast.

To be called an iconoclast today is kind of cool — they're rugged individualists, bold thinkers who don't give a hoot what tradition calls for. But back in medieval Greece, the iconoclasts had a more thuggish reputation. Stemming from the Greek words eikon, meaning "image," and klastes, meaning "breaker,"

Wikipedia

Definitions of iconoclast online dictionary

1 n

Someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions. Iconoclasm is the destruction of icons and other images or monuments for political motives. Over time, the word, usually in the adjectival form, has also come to refer to aggressive statements or actions against any well-established status quo. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow but can.

 

 

FOR MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS UPSET THAT DONALD TRUMP IS SOON THE PRESIDENT -- Please read this

Trump is not like anyone you have seen in office perhaps since LBJ or FDR. Neither of those men feared the press. Neither does Trump. Why should he? They can’t touch him. Oh, they can stir up phony outrage, but in the end he wins. He did today.

CNN really stepped in it by releasing or causing to be released a totally fabricated story of whores peeing on a bed. Even if you hate Trump, you gotta love truth. Loving truth means that when someone comes up with a fake story with no substantiation whatsoever you may not be required to defend the man, but you must defend the truth.

Trump does not reward incompetence. It’s how he became wealthy. How he gained and now holds power. If you oppose him, he will strike back, twice as hard. President Obama said that but he never was able to wield the authority to get the job done. He never learned to strike hard. What you are seeing now is the kind of authority in office we have been missing for a long time. Not even with Bush 2.

I wonder if CNN will even be given white house credentials. Trump has the ability to withhold them and in my opinion should.

Next time someone comes up with another fake accusation about Trump it will bounce off him like a pea shooter from a battle ship. The press if they are smart will have learned their lesson from this. That they need to be more careful.

I do wish the press including CNN were populated with smart people. They aren’t. When Trumps Lawyer outlined they structure for distance in Trumps business, the press tried to shoot it down. Their lack of understanding and knowledge became instantly apparent. You don’t need to know anything to be a reporter. Brian Williams demonstrated that. You just gotta look good doing it.

It’s also the reason President Trump must NEVER release his tax returns….ever. No one could understand them and even if they tried they would misinterpret them. It’s a lost cause.

My Fellow Christian Brothers and Sisters who are upset that President Trump exists, I know it’s a painful time for you. Your Beloved President is stepping down for someone who doesn’t share your view of how the world should work. Let me tell you, I understand. When President Obama became POTUS in 2009 I had the same emotions. George W Bush who despite some screw ups, I liked as a human being immensely. My concern with Pres Obama was his lack of experience. He had never actually held a real job. I’m not one who would say as some have that he came into office without any experience and is leaving the same way. He leaves with experience. I don’t believe him to have been a very good or successful President. I DO think he leaves a great role model of a moral man who loves his family and demonstrates all that is good. I am however glad his term is over. When he did right or made good decisions which did happen from time to time I applauded him. Supported him. When he got it wrong I did not.

I have lived thru the last 8 years. It’s been painful. I am of the firm position that his Presidency has had a negative effect on the Church of Jesus. Moral certitude that in 2008 regarding marriage, abortion, gays in the military, acceptance of Islam and sloth has become a part of the canon and that’s not good. Too much of his leaven has invaded the church of Jesus particularly in the community and it’s time to come back to righteousness. Start standing for truth once again. There is a lot to repent of from being polluted by the democrat party.

You probably won’t agree with me.. I get that. You will survive this for the next 8 years. If after 8 years of Trump Pence or Perhaps Pence somebody. I survived Obama. The nation will go on. He’s not the antichrist and I never thought Obama was. Just relax, give the man a chance. See if he might surprise you and be prepared to say, “I might just have been wrong about him”. I know that seems impossible right now.. but it’s time for peace. Don’t get all upset about every little thing he does. You’ll go nuts. I know many say being a liberal democrat is mental illness.. it may not be, but getting all verklempt over everything Trump says or does and taking offense to it is spiritual Trump Derangement Syndrome. Stop being led around by everything you see and hear. Stand for truth.

The rest of the story: What Obama won’t tell you about his legacy - MarketWatch

 

By

CarolineBaum

Columnist

Donald
Trump didn’t wait until Inauguration Day to insert himself into U.S.
foreign policy. He broke with precedent when he intervened to pressure
Egypt to withdraw a draft U.N. resolution condemning Israel, and the
U.S. to veto the final resolution.



At the same time, President
Barack Obama is not going quietly into the night. He has used that pen
of his to sign a rash of last-minute executive orders commuting the
sentences of some prisoners, pardoning others, banning drilling off the
Atlantic coast and in parts of the Arctic Ocean, and declaring 1.65
million acres of desert in Utah and Nevada as national monuments.



When
he isn’t making mischief for his successor, Obama is busy drafting his
legacy, which will culminate in a reprise of the historic moments of his
presidency as part of a Jan. 10 farewell address in Chicago. (Why wait for others to assess your legacy when you can do it yourself?)



Obama
is certain to relate his successes from the past eight years, including
the enactment of the Affordable Care Act and more than six years of
sustained job growth. Then there are a handful of things he would prefer
that we forget…



The rest of the story: What Obama won’t tell you about his legacy - MarketWatch

I don't want to be a stooped over old man.

I know many ten years my Senior who walk and stand tall and straight. But these are things I am doing now to avoid and recover from too many hours on the computer.

6 Exercises to Stop Slouching | The Art of Manliness

Slouching can lead to a Quasimodo-like hunched back. Use these exercises to strengthen your back and counteract and stop slouching.

artofmanliness.com

If you want to be set apart from the pack.. here are some good ideas.

12 Easy Things That Will Set You Apart in Business and in Life | The Art of Manliness

There’s never been a more opportune time to live, because the average person’s ability to execute on the basics has never been in such short supply.

artofmanliness.com

Delusional

These folks are desperately seeking a legacy... and scandal free? Other than these 18? http://www.breitbart.com/…/18-major-scandals-obama-preside…/

Obama’s closest adviser says president has been scandal-free | New York Post

Scandal, what scandal? President Obama has been squeaky clean, according to his closest adviser, Valerie Jarrett. “The president prides himself on the fact that his…

nypost.com

The educrats are in full panic mode.. they act like dismantling public education would be a BAD THING?????

Op-ed: Trump nominee would dismantle American public education | The Salt Lake Tribune

Now is the time to contact your members of Congress to proclaim — unequivocally — that the hope for the future of our children is directly connected to support for public education. President-elect Donald Trump’s ...

sltrib.com|By Melanie Agnew, Kristi Jones, Marilee Coles-ritchie, Jamie Joanou, Joyce Sibbett, Janet Dynak And Sha

Lukewarm don't work

This is not only spiritually, but churches that less tolerant of alternate lifestyles are thriving. For those who tried to remain "Neutral" (There is no such thing in the Kingdom) they are dying. They stand for nothing so they drift off into oblivion. If you are a senior leader and passively support spiritual convictions that include compromise with the world .. you are part of a disappearing breed. Compromised Christianity is dying a slow and welcome death. Jesus wasn't too crazy about them either.. spit them out of his mouth.

Liberal churches are dying. But conservative churches are thriving. - The Washington Post

A Canadian study found that conservative churches are still growing, while less orthodox congregations dwindle away.

washingtonpost.com

It wasn't the Russians

Listening to all the falderal regarding the Russians and Hacking the election foolishness on capital hill with a very political bent on the part of the intelligence community, I think it's high time that we tell ourselves the truth. Listening to McCain, I don't even think he voted for Trump.

I will not say Barack Obama.. Sorry.

We all have a list of people in the public eye that we wish would just dry up and blow away in 2017. They are irrelevant and useless human beings.
1 Lena Dunham... what has she ever done that mattered to anyone
2 Colin Kapernik ... who single-handedly murdered the NFL
3 Shaun King ... Fake black boy who's opinions are forgettable.
4 Marilyn Mosby ... Failed Prosecutor and racist I won't miss
5 John Podesta .. Who destroyed the DNC and fumbled every ball
6 Debbie Wasserman Schultz ... Just writing her name is hard
7 Hillary Clinton ... for more reasons than you can know
8 Howard Dean ... who is a real loon
9 Washed up Actors who made a video recently listing demands
10 Steven Colbert who used to be funny... long ago

Corrine Barraclough: The Left has absolutely lost the plot, and people like Milo Yiannopoulos have benefited | DailyTelegraph

Corrine Barraclough: The Left has absolutely lost the plot, and people like Milo Yiannopoulos have benefited | DailyTelegraph

So that No One is deluded

Some New Year’s Resolutions for Our Progressive Pals - Kurt Schlichter

This is hilarious.. and true.  The year 2016 was a great one for our progressive friends – except for
that whole utter repudiation unpleasantness of last November. Now, as a
concerned conservative friend eager to help, let me offer you some New
Year's resolutions that will keep you on the path to success. The bottom
line: stay the course!







Some New Year’s Resolutions for Our Progressive Pals - Kurt Schlichter

We live in a horribly racist world.. these are the worst

Tapestry of my work life…

I grew up on a farm and in a shop.  I also was a gardener.  These are earliest memories for me.  Parents and relatives were of the earth.

I was always inventing things.  Taking things apart; Putting them back together sometimes with success, not always.

Working in the shop with tools taught me well.  Working on the farm with animals and equipment also prepared me for life.

I got an education in school. Probably should have skipped High School and went straight to college.  Learned nearly all there.  Sang in a choir, played in bands.  Crammed 4 years into 5.  Would have enjoyed being a perpetual student.

Began raising vegetables on rented land.  Did that for 3 years in college.  Also worked at K-Mart in the Patio Department  (Blue Light Specials et al) quit that and worked in Produce in a supermarket (fired), Farmed every summer, mostly raising vegetables.  Then got a job selling farm equipment.  Few hundred bucks a month and all the used steel I could eat.  But there was a commission. Prospered at it. Eventually did well enough where I bought a small piece of land.  Farmed it.

Learned to trade commodities during that time. Oats, Corn, Pork Bellies.  Huge wins larger losses.  Learned economics the hard way. 

In the Mid 70s quit the equipment business to go into the technology field.  Personal computers were new.  Started a small corporation.  It became a big one.  Then a second in software that didn’t.  And a third in Radio Networking that did.  And all the while farming.. owned a dairy farm.. for a while.   Sold out when it didn’t work.

In the 1980s land I had contracts on to own went away.. the inflation of the Carter years were washed away by Paul Volker and I was nearly broke.  From great plenty… to the edge of disaster.

Just in time a call came from a company in Chicago.  Come and help.  So I moved here.  Operated that company for a few years .. then moved to Germany to manage a company there.  Both went really well.

Returning then in the early 90s I decided to get back into Horticulture and Farming.  Worked in marketing for a major Nursery.  Then for a while recruited back into software.  That only lasted several months.  Missed the outdoors.  Worked for a local family nursery.  Fired.  Started my own.  Became a good sized corporation.  Closed it in 2002 and started the company I own today.   Began consulting for other nurseries, banks and financial institutions. 

Now after 50+ years of work in a dozen different fields I see how they all book-ended together to bring me to this point.  I am convinced that some things could never have happened without these various activities.  Am I a jack of all trades??  Sorta.. but master of some. 

I wish that many people would see how the tapestry of life is closely woven by Father God and no matter what happens, it’s all good.. even when it seems not to be.

What Women Want

I saw this on Facebook.  A woman posted this.  SHE IS SINGLE.  And daydreaming.

In any case.. read and be amused

20 things Women Want in and from a man. Here are the following things Women want or expect.
1. She is looking for a Spiritual man. One who loves God first
2. She is looking for a leader. Women actually want you to take the lead and be the priest that you are. Women are attracted to men that have power.
3. She's looking for a man with great qualities. Loving, caring, kind, respectful, integral and honest.
4. She is looking for a man that can give her something she cannot give or do for herself.
5 Women are looking for a man to be sensitive and in tune to her needs. she's looking for attention. If you don't give it to her, you put her at risk to seek it elsewhere.
6. She is looking for quality time. If you don't spend time with her you will lose her. No one wants to be in a relationship and still feel alone. Make time. Being too busy will destroy your relationship. Too busy means i dont have time for you and you are not a priority. This also tells her you may not be interested and she is not as important to you.
7. She is looking for Communication- This is MUST for a woman. Failure to do so can jepordize the relationship. Women like to communicate and for a man to listen.
8. She is looking for someone that is financially stable. If you don't have it together it suggest that you don't have your priorities in order. if you can't manage money how can you support her.
9. Women are looking for security. She loves to feel protected.
10. Women want to feel wanted and that she's the only woman that you want. any signs that you're a game player or you have options will easily push her away.
11. She's looking for a man that has management skills and can maintain a home.
12. Women want men that she's physically attracted and more so emotionally attracted. Women are whipped by words. Minister too her mind. Touch her without touching her
13.Women want men that are sexually skilled. You have appeal and you're creative.
14. Women want men that have a good personality. make her laugh
if you are dry, boring, bland predictable she'll lose interest. be spontaneous and full of surprises.
15. Women want men that are confident but not arrogant and prideful. if you are immature and stuck in your ways she will start to become disgusted.
16. Women want men to take them out on adventure. Go out and have fun. She wants balance.
17. She wants a man that's a hard worker, and motivated. If you are lazy she will not consider you.
18. Women want a man that will publicly display their love and affection
19. Women want men that will love her and her children.
20. Women want men that is willing to marry her

Donald Trump could erase Obama's legacy almost as soon as he takes office

President-elect Donald Trump's victory on Election Day has put some of President Barack Obama's hallmark achievements in jeopardy.

Trump has come out strongly against almost all of the top initiatives Obama spent eight years working on — the Asia pivot, the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, Obamacare, and the Iran nuclear deal — and they're fragile enough that Trump could reverse course fairly easily.

"You have an outsider president being replaced by the most outsider candidate ever elected," Ian Bremmer, a geopolitical analyst and president of the Eurasia Group, told Business Insider via email.

"There's nothing like one upsmanship, big league, to destroy your legacy."



Donald Trump could erase Obama's legacy almost as soon as he takes office

Obama's White House Christmas Message Full of BS and Lies - Thank God It's His Last One

Now here’s the truth.


Under Obama more than 94 million Americans are out of work – the highest level ever in American history.  Food stamps are at all time highs and Obama’s GDP Growth rate is the 4th lowest of the more than 40 Presidents in American history and worst in nearly a century.  American home ownership is the lowest in nearly 50 years and US federal debt has never been higher with
Obama nearly doubling the amount from all the prior Presidents combined
to nearly $20 trillion.  Americans will be burdened with $10 trillion
in Obama debt for decades to come.


Obama’s health insurance program is a mess with year after year of
grossly increasing premiums for Americans everywhere.  Young people have
to pay huge Obamacare premiums or
get hit with large tax penalties for not buying insurance.  It was not
what it was promised and insurance companies are dropping out due to
solvency concerns.


America is less respected worldwide due to Obama being blamed for the
mess in the Middle East in Libya, Syria and Iraq.  Obama’s actions created ISIS and millions have been murdered, raped, beheaded or misplaced during the Obama years while he did nothing to help.  Instead Obama gave billions to Iran and turned his back on Israel.



Obama's White House Christmas Message Full of BS and Lies - Thank God It's His Last One

Obama's last Christmas a season of disappointment | Washington Examiner

Sunday marks President Obama's
last Christmas while in office. Though he'll spend it in Hawaii rather
than at the White House, it must be a bittersweet Yuletide.



Obama's handiwork is being returned to the store like unwanted
Christmas presents. He is set to be succeeded by a Republican — and not
just any Republican, but Donald Trump, a man the outgoing president described as an insult to his legacy. Trump for a while didn't accept Obama's United States citizenship, much less his policies.



Republicans will also control both houses of Congress, giving
the party unified control of the federal government's elected branches
for the first time in a decade.



Obama's last Christmas a season of disappointment | Washington Examiner

Kwanzaa Creator: Deranged Felon Who Tortured Naked Women | The Daily Caller

It’s Christmastime, America, and you know what that means: It’s the
season when public schools across the fruited plain are teeming with
lessons about Kwanzaa and a handful of other holidays which aren’t
Christmas.


As a public service, then, The Daily Caller is here to tell you the
true — and truly bizarre — history of the violent, deranged and radical
black nationalist who concocted the completely artificial holiday of
Kwanzaa in 1966.

 
YouTube screenshot/The Real Black Atheist Library, Shutterstock/Gal Amar

The creator of Kwanzaa is Maulana Ndabezitha Karenga, a 75-year-old professor or Africana studies
at California State University, Long Beach. His real name is Ronald
Everett. He was born in rural Maryland, the fourteenth child of a
sharecropping Baptist minister.


Karenga was convicted in 1971 for brutally torturing two naked women.
The women were members of Karenga’s ultra-radical, paramilitary, black
nationalist cult called the US Organization, according to a May 1971 Los
Angeles Times story dug up by FrontPage Magazine.




“Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African
queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and
beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes,”
the LA Times article reports.



Kwanzaa Creator: Deranged Felon Who Tortured Naked Women | The Daily Caller

Corruption in Chicago... WOW who knew?

Defeated Democrats' new attack line: The Electoral College is racist | Washington Examiner

Democrats still mourning the outcome of last month's election
have added a new step to their grieving process: leveling charges of
racism against those who support the constitutional method of electing
the president.



In keeping with the process stipulated in the 12th Amendment,
538 electors representing all 50 states gathered on Monday to cast their
ballots for the 45th president. The result – that Donald Trump
will officially enter the Oval Office on Jan. 20 – was affirmed by the
Electoral College, an institution the Left is now casting as racist and
anti-Democratic.



Mere hours after Trump topped the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, liberal filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted:
"Hello rest of the world! My fellow Americans are asleep right now so I
thought we could talk and maybe explain what happened yesterday."

Defeated Democrats' new attack line: The Electoral College is racist | Washington Examiner

Everyone should be treated with respect — unless you’re a Republican | New York Post

’Tis the season to spread joy and cheer — unless you’re a liberal still bitter about the election.


Thursday, Ivanka Trump and her family were accosted by Dan Goldstein,
a lawyer from Brooklyn, who yelled at her that her father, who has yet
to take office, was “ruining the country.” It wasn’t a spontaneous
outburst. Goldstein’s husband had tweeted from the JetBlue terminal at
JFK Airport that Goldstein was “chasing” Ivanka and her family to
“harass” them.


“Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private,” Goldstein
reportedly shouted when he saw them on the plane and allegedly engaged
with her children as well. Goldstein and his husband were removed from the plane, with Goldstein complaining that he was merely “expressing his opinion.”


The last few years, we’ve seen the creation of safe spaces, though
they’re usually for protecting fragile leftists from disagreeable
thoughts and arguments. Lunatic men badgering women on planes in front
of their kids apparently is fair play — if that mother is related to a
Republican you don’t like.


The irony, of course, is that Ivanka Trump is someone liberals should
be thankful to have in the incoming president’s inner circle. She’s
certainly no partisan right-winger, and in fact has thus far during the
transition been taking point on issues like climate change (she even met
with Al Gore) and paid family leave. Why the rage at her? 

Everyone should be treated with respect — unless you’re a Republican | New York Post

Lawrence Solomon: Proof that a new ice age has already started is stronger than ever, and we couldn’t be less prepared

 Earth’s new climate will affect much more than the energy sector. Abdussamatov leaves us with a dire warning.


“The world must start preparing for the new Little Ice Age right
now. Politicians and business leaders must make full economic
calculations of the impact of the new Little Ice Age on everything —
industry, agriculture, living conditions, development. The most
reasonable way to fight against the new Little Ice Age is a complex of
special steps aimed at support of economic growth and energy-saving
production to adapt mankind to the forthcoming period of deep cooling.”


An overheated planet has never been a threat, say climate
skeptics, not today, not ever in human history. An underheated planet,
in contrast, is a threat humans have repeatedly faced over the last
millennium, and now we’re due again.


“The upcoming climate change will be the most important challenge
and a priority issue for the world and define the main events in
politics, the economy, and the most important areas of the whole of
humanity in the coming decades,” Abdussamatov concludes. It’s time we
took the threat of climate change — of the real climate change —
seriously.




Lawrence Solomon: Proof that a new ice age has already started is stronger than ever, and we couldn’t be less prepared

UN's Israel Settlements Resolution: Barack Obama’s Betrayal of Israel | National Review

It is Islamist-leftist dogma that Israel’s millennia of attachment to
its homeland count for nothing.

Adding a final shameful chapter to a foreign-policy record that already
runneth over with them, Barack Obama on Friday abandoned America’s
commitment to Israel’s security, and to the vindication of democracy
over sharia-supremacist aggression. In an act of cowardly venom, the
president had the United States abstain from — and thereby effectively
enact — a United Nations Security Council resolution that condemns
Israeli settlement activity.

At least, that’s what the resolution ostensibly does. The reality is
much more than that. The resolution undertakes to render our ally
indefensible.

It was a black day in modern American diplomatic history, a flurry of
sinister wheeling and dealing while the nation — exhausted by the
election, anticipating a weekend of Christmas and Hanukkah celebration —
was looking the other way.

To his great credit, Donald Trump was not. The president-elect asserted
himself on Israel’s behalf, backing up his campaign promise that
“America First” meant restoration of America’s reputation as a
dependable friend and an enemy not to be trifled with. Under the
pressure he generated, Egypt backed down, withdrawing its sponsorship of
the resolution.

But such is the disdain in which Israel is openly held after eight Obama
years of empowering Islamists that four other countries — Malaysia,
Venezuela, Senegal, and, of all places, New Zealand — revived the
resolution, knowing they had the State Department’s backing. With the
U.S. abstention, it was easily approved.

It is a disgraceful legacy of Barack Obama that his obsession over
settlements and antipathy toward Israeli prime minister Benjamin
Netanyahu — traits he shares with his old radical comrade, Rashid
Khalidi — have made the already dim prospects for peace far more remote.
At the root of the settlements controversy is the fiction that the
territory at issue is “occupied Palestinian” land. In point of stubborn
fact, no matter how tirelessly the vaunted “international community”
evokes the scurrilous image of occupation, the territory is righteously
disputed.

UN's Israel Settlements Resolution: Barack Obama’s Betrayal of Israel | National Review

The Return of Street Corner Conservatism

AP

BY: Matthew Continetti
December 23, 2016 5:00 am



Richard Nixon was plotting his 1968 presidential campaign when he
received a letter from a high school English teacher in Pennsylvania.
The correspondent, a young man named William F. Gavin, wasn’t certain
Nixon would run. But he sure wanted him to. “You can win,” Gavin wrote.
“Nothing can happen to you, politically speaking, that is worse than
what has happened to you.”


Gavin cited Ortega y Gasset to explain why Nixon was uniquely suited
to lead during the violence and uncertainty of the late 1960s. “You
are,” he went on, “the only political figure with the vision to see
things the way they are and not as Leftist and Rightist kooks would have
them.”


The forceful and eloquent style of Gavin’s prose impressed top Nixon
aide Patrick J. Buchanan. Gavin soon joined the nascent campaign,
beginning a career writing speeches for the thirty-seventh president,
for Senator Jim Buckley of New York, for Ronald Reagan, and for
congressman Bob Michel, as well as composing novels, nonfiction books,
and journalism. Gavin understood well the political realignment that
brought city- and suburban-dwelling white working class ethnics—Irish,
Italians, Greeks, Pols, and Slavs—rather tentatively into the Republican
camp. “The Nixon aide who understood the Catholic opportunity best,”
Buchanan wrote later, “was Bill Gavin, who had grown up Catholic and
conservative, his views and values shaped by family, faith, and
friends.”


I have been thinking about Gavin lately because his life and thought
so perfectly capture the conservatism of Donald Trump. When you read
Gavin, you begin to understand that the idea of Trump as a conservative
is not oxymoronic. Trump is a conservative—of a particular type
that is rare in intellectual circles. His conservatism is ignored or
dismissed or opposed because, while it often reaches the same
conclusions as more prevalent versions of conservatism, its impulses,
emphases, and forms are different from those of traditionalism,
anti-Communism, classical liberalism, Leo Strauss conservatism in its
East and West Coast varieties, the neoconservatism of Irving Kristol as
well as the neoconservatism of William Kristol, religious conservatism,
paleo-conservatism, compassionate conservatism, constitutional
conservatism, and all the other shaggy inhabitants of the conservative
zoo.

The Return of Street Corner Conservatism

Obama’s Anti-Israel Tantrum - WSJ

The decision by the United States to abstain from a United Nations
Security Council resolution condemning Israel over its settlements on
the West Bank is one of the most significant, defining moments of the Obama Presidency.

It
defines this President’s extraordinary ability to transform matters of
public policy into personal pique at adversaries. And it defines the
reality of the international left’s implacable opposition to the Israeli
state.

Earlier in the week, Egypt withdrew the Security Council resolution under pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President-elect Donald Trump also intervened, speaking with Egypt’s government and, via Twitter, urging Mr. Obama to block the resolution, as have past U.S. Administrations and Mr. Obama himself in 2011.

As
was widely reported Friday after the U.N. vote, the White House decided
to abstain—thereby allowing the pro-Palestinian resolution to pass—in
retaliation against the intervention by Messrs. Netanyahu and Trump.

Mr.
Obama’s animus toward Prime Minister Netanyahu is well known.
Apparently Mr. Obama took it as an affront that the President-elect
would express an opinion about this week’s U.N. resolution.

It
is important, though, to see this U.S. abstention as more significant
than merely Mr. Obama’s petulance. What it reveals clearly is the Obama
Administration’s animus against the state of Israel itself. No longer
needing Jewish votes, Mr. Obama was free, finally, to punish the Jewish
state in a way no previous President has done.

No effort to
rescind the resolution, which calls the settlements a violation of
“international law,” will succeed because of Russia’s and China’s
vetoes.

Instead, the resolution will live on as Barack Obama’s
cat’s paw, offering support in every European capital, international
institution and U.S. university campus to bully Israel with the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions movement.



Obama’s Anti-Israel Tantrum - WSJ

Meritocracy’s losers: No degree, no respect — Joanne Jacobs

 

Educational elitism marks the modern U.S. economy, writes Victor Tan Chen in The Atlantic.
College-educated winners scorn working-class Americans as “as lazy,
untalented, uneducated, and unsophisticated.” A Virginia Commonwealth
sociology professor, he’s the author of Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopeless in an Unfair Economy. 

Our culture is an extreme meritocracy, writes Chen. We believe anyone can “make it” in America. It follows that those who don’t succeed deserve their low status.

“The well-educated and well-off who live in or near big cities tend
to endorse the notion, explicitly or implicitly, that education
determines a person’s value,” writes Chen.

More so than in other rich nations, like Germany and
Japan, which have prioritized vocational training to a greater degree, a
college degree has become the true mark of individual success in
America . . .

For his book, Chen interviewed laid-off auto workers, all former
union members, who shared the view that the educated deserved to live
better than the uneducated. Yet, “two-thirds of Americans age 25 and over do not have a bachelor’s degree,” he writes.

The labor market has become more polarized, as highly paid jobs for workers with middling levels of education and skill dwindle away. And as many have argued, advances in artificial intelligence threaten a net loss of employment (even for the well-educated) in the not-so-far-off future.

A new government report warns automation will increase demand for high-level technical skills — and decrease demand for routine skills.

Fordham’s Mike Petrilli calls this the great “coming apart.” Educational attainment (or the lack of it) is “the new dividing line.”

Meritocracy’s losers: No degree, no respect — Joanne Jacobs

Christmas Letter for the Gleaner Readers

Christmas 2016 and we’re still here

Waking up every day and seeing I am still here is not yet a surprise…but …. You know.  Peggy and I are well.. as can be expected.  We are working very hard. I didn’t think we would be toting that barge and lifting that bale at this time in our lives.  But in the last year I have conducted appraisals and valuations in Gainesville FL, Portland OR, Boise ID, Near Lewiston ID, and Near Ashville NC.  Along the way I was instrumental in putting up for sale and selling a sizeable nursery in Cobden IL (southern IL).  All in all a busy and profitable year;  AND I’m still working.  I enjoy the expert work and while I have no projects on the docket right now..   the phone still works.

The Nursery itself did well.  It helps to have some good people in place.  BUT  I am still in search of a successor or buyer.  I know the day will come when it will go from a blessing to a burden.  It’s a good little business and makes money.. but it needs to find home. 

Peggy and I got a chance to freshen up our tans in Florida - bit at Ormand Beach and then later in the summer at Mexico Beach which is Becoming one of my favorite places.  Still primitive.  Not overdeveloped.. yet.  It’s pretty with it’s Dolphins in the morning and the little sting rays in mating season.  On Ormand we saw a crab trying to eat a baby turtle. I rescued it.  There is a very angry crab in Florida.  Florida is a tradition now.  On  the last trip we stopped at the Fountain of Youth in St Augustine.  We both took a big drink from the fountain.  I’m pretty sure we are good for another 50.

We were there this spring to get some trucks loaded out of a growers operation in North Florida.  Peggy played the role of counting plants as they were loaded, but she insisted on getting up in the truck and helping to load.  I kept yelling .. GET OFF THAT TRUCK! She’s something.

We celebrated our 50^th wedding anniversary this year.  Tim, Raquella and Kevin put together a wonderful celebration party in West Fargo.   We are more appreciative than you can know.  She is as beautiful as she ever was and looking at the wonderful photo album Raquella put together Peggy looking at it couldn’t figure out for a second who that pretty lady was.  It was wonderful to see so many cousins.

I hadn’t seen some of them in years.  Jim, Elaine and Wally.

                 Of course we had to visit our “Summer Home”

                 Asheville NC.  The Biltmore. 

                They let us rent it (a tiny piece) for 50 bucks a day.   

    Tim, Raquella and the Four Grands are doing great in

    West Fargo ND.  Tim’s construction business is booming. 

    They makes us proud. Nearly all photos here by Raquella.

Kevin is in Dallas and is about  to move to a new restaurant

location downtown.  He does everything but wash the windows. 

He owns one condo and is in the process of buying another. Kevin also is my extant technical consultant on EXCEL issues.  Proud of his exceptional ability

Peggy’s Mom has moved to a new place with more security.  Living alone without Ben had become difficult and she is over 9 decades of age.  Peggy, to help make the move work, roared back and forth to Oakes in the little Mercedes till the tires nearly wore off.  Then we went for Thanksgiving.  We are going no where this winter.  Did you know there can be snow on the roads?  Speaking of snow on the road, we made a trip on the road to Oakes to celebrate Mom’s 100^th Birthday (Ruth Redlin) in February.   That only comes round once a century.  She’s doing well enough for a centenarian.  Well attended and well deserved.

In Church News… we have joined ourselves to a small church in Oswego IL.  Good preaching and it’s coming along.  Great things are in store. I still, when I am able, try to be part of Crusaders in the city. The drive is a bit difficult… but worth it. The impact network is restarting next year.   I’ll be part of it. 

                                  Peggy has the house decorated inside and out full on old school

for Christmas.  If there is a flat surface  it now jingles with bells. 

            It’s cheerful and wonderful. I “supervised” a bit. 

           

We bought our Christmas present to each other.  The Old Panasonic Twin Power Microwave we have had since 1977 finally gave up after moving with us to 5 different residences in which have lived the last 40 years.  We now have a brand new Breville.   I don’t know if we will see it last 40 years.

This last year has been one of great change ..  mostly for the better.  I think the changes we see in our nation bode well. 

Make Your Christmas GREAT AGAIN..  And the New Year GREATER

Gene and Peggy Redlin

Established July 16, 1966

23 People and Organizations That NEED to be on Donald Trump's Christmas List

There are people and organizations Donald Trump needs to thank this holiday season for helping him become our next President.  In no particular order, other than the last one, here is a partial list.  I hope he has added them to his Christmas List.  

The Occupy whatever movement that fizzled out.  They illustrated how vacuous the left has become.

The Dakota Pipeline Protesters for their demonstration of fake news and people's gullibility.

The Black Lives Matter folks who look for a reason to riot even against Trump.  Every torched building and city helped him get elected.

The crooked IRS under this Administration.  Their continued persecution of right wing causes showed how evil bad governance can be.

The corruption in the Clinton Foundation that tainted Hillary the most.  She was seen as a gangster and she is.

The liberal mainstream media who never found a fantasy or a lie they didn't spread.  Credibility was destroyed in this election cycle.. and not a minute to soon.

The college fragile snowflakes and their propagator enablers in the left wing faculty and administrations

The establishment elites in both the Republican and Democrat parties that couldn't figure it out till it was too late.

Those who expressed faux outrage at every tweet, every speech and every debate for everything that Trump said during the last 18 months.  They became background noise.

The Bureau of Land Management for it's gestapo like tactics with Land Owners in Texas in out west.  Slow motion Branch Davidian Burning

Planned Parenthood for showing us the underbelly of the women's rights movement complete moral bankruptcy in selling the body parts of our tiniest and most vulnerable Americans.

Those Muslim Jihadists who murdered so many here and abroad.. and the war front ISIS where ineptitude created them.  They firmed up a policy that needs change badly.

The teachers unions and the education establishment in secondary and higher education which has failed to educate but only succeeded in spending money on nothing.

The EPA, HUD, IRS, DOE and all the other Alphabet agencies that oppress our lives so radically and steal our money. Anger over these people is not lost on the Trump voter.

Those crony capitalist companies that took our money and failed and those who still are.  TESLA would be out of business tomorrow if it was not a crony capitalist company. So would most solar panel and wind power companies.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz.. the gift that keeps on giving

Faux Intellectuals who point out that uneducated white men put Trump in Office...  Never mind they showed themselves profoundly stupid this whole cycle right up till 10 PM Eastern Time November 8, 2106

The Supreme Court that couldn't bring itself to sanity regarding Homosex Marriage or Obamacare's takeover of the economy.. and put a scare into all of us who RAN to the polls to vote for Trump.

Every accusation of racism, race baiting, race war, race race race race till it became background noise.  And in fact the question "What have you got to lose" caused many to say.. NOTHING AT ALL

Lawyers that overwhelmingly voted for Clinton which demonstrates LAWYERS.

Bernie Sanders who in a way HELPED Trump by bringing to light corruption in our elective system. He never had a chance.  Many Sanders voters eventually voted TRUMP.

Hillary Clinton for being a really bad uninspiring drone of a candidate.  There were better choices not made by an insipid cowardly DNC.

AND LAST but MOST IMPORTANT
Thanks must be given to President Barack Hussein Obama for having brought this nation to it's knees with the highest unemployed worker participation rate in 4 decades, nearly all new job creation has been part time or low pay service jobs, the lowest home ownership rate since the 1940s, the lowest GDP growth since the great depression, the worst 8 years for new business starts ever and reported today that 6 MILLION car loans are in default.  All the while our reputation around the world stinks, the middle east is in flames and regulations on EVERYTHING has skyrocketed.  It's easy to understand that the greatest thanks belongs to President Obama.  The bar is pretty low for President Trump to come up from.

Dakota Access Pipeline Remarks North Dakota Senator John Hoeven Floor of the U.S. Senate November 30, 2016

 

Introduction

I rise to speak today and respond to comments from some of my colleagues on the Dakota  Access Pipeline and the ongoing protests in North Dakota.  The Dakota Access Pipeline is a 1,172-mile crude-oil pipeline from the Bakken oil fields near Stanley, North Dakota, to refineries and terminals in Patoka, Illinois. It will move 470,000 barrels of light sweet crude  ( the highest grade oil  )  from the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana to market oil that is now moved by truck and rail over our roads and bridges. So the project actually increases efficiency and safety for oil that is already being transported. Further, the project has undergone years of thorough state regulatory reviews and an extensive federal environmental assessment, which found no significant environmental impact.  Twice challenged and twice upheld  including by the Obama administration’s own appointees.

The federal courts found that the Army Corps had followed the appropriate process the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was properly consulted and the project can lawfully proceed. Everyone has a right to be heard, but it must done lawfully and peacefully.

 Whether this is during the permitting process with its opportunities for public comment or else disputing the outcome through the court system. And I emphasize through the court system.  The ongoing protest activities which at times have turned violent  are being prolonged and intensified by the Obama Administration’s refusal to approve the final

remaining easement at Lake Oahe.

This inaction has inflamed tensions, strained state and local resources, and, most importantly, is needlessly putting people at risk  including tribal members, protestors, law enforcement officers, construction workers, and area residents, Our farmers and ranchers who live and work in the area.

It’s past time that the final easement is approved and construction is completed. We need to resolve this issue. As the record demonstrates, it should be done so by its merits through the previously established regulatory and legal process. Further the federal law enforcement agencies should help our state and local law enforcement officers to ensure the law is followed, prevent violent and unlawful protests, and see  that the peace is maintained. Our law enforcement officers have worked professionally, diligently, and tirelessly to protect the public.

Background

 To further describe the situation, let me provide some background.  The company developed the route for Dakota Access Pipeline beginning in 2014. The current path will run parallel to the existing Northern Border Gas Pipeline, which was placed into service in 1982, as well as an existing high-voltage electric transmission line.

Ninety-nine percent of the route for the Dakota Access pipeline crosses private land. Only 3 percent of the work needed to build the pipeline requires federal approval of any kind and only 1 percent of the pipeline affects U.S. waterways.  To date, the pipeline is already 98 percent complete in North Dakota and 86 percent complete overall. This includes the route around and up to the final 0.21-mile portion of the Missouri River where most of the protests are occurring.

This area of the river  known as Lake Oahe  is controlled by the Army Corps for flood control purposes, and requires one remaining federal easement.  The segment at the center of this debate is the small section planned to traverse under Lake Oahe, which would occur at a depth of 92 to 117 feet below the riverbed. In fact, where it crosses Lake Oahe, Dakota Access is 100 percent adjacent the existing natural gas pipeline. This was done so that ground disturbances would not harm intact cultural or tribal features.  To put this issue into broader context, the Congressional Research Service estimates there are 38,410 crude oil pipeline river and waterbody crossings in the United States, including 1,079 in North Dakota. These crossings range from rivers, streams, and lakes, to ponds, canals, and ditches.

Tribal Consultations

In total, the Army Corps held 389 meetings, conferred with more than 55 tribes, and conducted a 1,261-page environmental assessment, before finding that this infrastructure project has no significant environmental impact.

In his September 9^th federal court opinion, U.S. District Judge Boasberg noted the company surveyed nearly twice as many miles in North Dakota as the 357 miles that would eventually be used for the pipeline.  The federal judge also noted where the surveys revealed evidence of historically important or cultural resources, such as stone features, the company modified the route on its own 140 times in North Dakota alone to avoid them. Additionally, the Corps ordered the company to change the route where it crossed the James River to avoid burial sites there.

The pipeline company and the Army Corps have documented dozens of attempts to engage  with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe to help identify historical resources and provide feedback in the planning process. Judge Boasberg wrote that “the tribe largely refused to engage in consultations, and chose to hold out for more, namely the chance to conduct its own cultural surveys over the entire length of the pipeline.”

Further, Judge Boasberg wrote: “As it has previously mentioned, this Court does not lightly countenance any depredation of lands that hold significance to the Standing Rock Sioux. Aware of the indignities visited upon the Tribe over the last centuries, the Court scrutinizes the permitting process here with particular care. Having done so, the Court must nonetheless conclude that the  Tribe has not demonstrated that an injunction is warranted here.”

In the spring of 2016, I helped arrange meetings between Colonel Henderson and Standing Rock. It was during these meetings that Army Corps Colonel Henderson imposed several additional conditions on the pipeline, including a double-walled piping, in response to tribal concerns about environmental safety. A Tribal Monitoring Plan has also been required, which requires Dakota  Access to allow tribal monitors at [certain] sites when construction is occurring. Environmental Assessment In July 2016, the Army Corps issued its final Environmental Assessment, which concluded  with “Finding of No Significant Impact” and “No Historic Properties Affected” determinations.

The Environmental Assessment “establishes that the [Corps] made a good faith effort to

consult with the tribes and that it considered all tribal comments. In addition, Dakota Access has developed response and action plans, and will include several monitoring systems, shut-off valves and other safety features to minimize the risk of spills and reduce or remediate any potential damages.”

In fact, the Army Corps required the company to implement numerous mitigation plans, including (1) an Environmental Construction plan; (2) a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan; (3) a Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan; (4) a Horizontal Directional Drilling Construction Plan; (5) a Horizontal Directional Drilling Contingency Plan; (6) an Unanticipated Cultural Resources Discovery Plan; (7) a Geographical Response Plan; (8) a Facility Response Plan, and (9) a Tribal Monitoring Plan, among other measures.

Protest Activities

 With regard to the protests, the Obama administration’s inaction on the final federal

easement crossing the Missouri River has created undue hardship and uncertainty for area residents, private landowners, farmers, ranchers, tribal members, construction workers, and law enforcement personnel themselves. Now with winter weather conditions worsening, this inaction has reached a critical and frankly life-threatening stage.

 

There have been instances of trespassing, vandalism, theft, and fire on privately owned ranchland. Residents have endured the challenges caused by roads being blocked or closed, either by protest activity or law enforcement’s response to it to ensure safety at a time when farmers and ranchers are busy harvesting, hauling hay, shipping calves and moving their herds from summer pasture. In addition, law enforcement is investigating cases of butchered, mutilated, injured and missing cattle, horses and bison in areas adjacent to sites occupied by protesters. Law enforcement has worked to protect everyone. They have been patient, professional, and diligent. They have not used concussion grenades. More than 500 protestors have been arrested for breaking the law, and over 90 percent of them are from out of state many if not most are not Native American. They are environmental activists from other parts of the country. If you want more information on law enforcement, go to YouTube “Know the Truth Morton County”

which is a website the Morton County Sheriff’s Office uses to provide updates on their efforts to maintain law and order at the protest site. The motto of law enforcement is “To Serve and Protect” and that is exactly what they are doing.

Conclusion

In accordance with the finding of the Army Corps’ environmental assessment and court

decisions, the Army Corps needs to follow established legal and regulatory criteria and approve the final easement so that construction can be completed. In addition, federal resources should be deployed expeditiously to protect people and property in the area of violent protests to help support state and local law enforcement efforts. This issue needs to be resolved.