It’s Monday, December 12th, 2016…but before we begin, a few personal notes.  (1). Please join us in wishing our youngest son Travis (shown below taking his first flying lesson) a very Happy 27th Birthday:

Travis is working for JLL in downtown D.C. as an office broker on the tenant representation side.  So anyone out there looking for a hard-working, knowledgable tenant rep, he’s your man.

(2). We congratulate our eldest son Jon (shown with his lovely wife Liz at a recent dining-out) and his entire unit on Army finally snatching victory from the jaws of defeat:

Though the Black Knights time and again tried to hand the Midshipman their 15th victory in a row, Navy repeatedly refused the offer, as the coaching staff inexplicably ceased to employ the flexbone triple-option which had heretofore allowed the Mids to amass over 300 yards rushing per game.  Sure, the quarterback is young; but if he’s your back-up, and he can’t run the only effective offense you have, we’d suggest you have a Plan B.

(3). Captain Owen Thorp, an old friend and Naval Academy classmate is undergoing chemo and radiation at Hopkins for a rare form of cancer.

O is a full-time engineering instructor at Navy, and has also served as the academic advisor for the lacrosse team as long as we can remember.  He is beloved by his classmates, his students and his players, and we would very much appreciate you keeping Owen, his wife Kathy and their family in your prayers.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, since the subject suddenly seems to be the fixation of those who invented it, writing at Townhall.com, John Hawkins details…

The 7 Worst Examples of Fake News From the Mainstream Media

“Who would have ever realized that the woman who lied about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia, receiving classified emails on her private server and about a million other things cared so much about honesty?

…Yet, for every piece of “false news” there are probably five pieces of news put out by left-wing sources that either don’t feel compelled to tell the truth about conservatives, have become largely indistinguishable from Democratic Party press releases or that have fallen so in love with a narrative that they don’t care whether a story is true or not as long as it fits.

1) Newsweek’s Flushing The Koran Story

“…Since the story was published, there has been outrage and mayhem in much of the Muslim world. Demonstrations erupted in Pakistan after Imran Khan, a former cricket player and now opposition political figure, read sections from the article at a press conference. Riots broke out throughout Afghanistan, mobs attacked government and aid-organization offices, and 15 people have died so far. Anti-American demonstrations have taken place from North Africa to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, in the face of Pentagon denials, Newsweek has begun backtracking. Newsweek seemed to have had doubts about the report from the beginning, since it ran it not as a straight news story but as a squiblet in the “Periscope” section. Now, in the May 23 issue, editor Mark Whitaker admits that its sourcing was suspect and stated, “We regret that we got any part of our story wrong and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst.”…”

2) Rathergate

“The facts may have been inaccurate but the story was true.”

3) NBC And CNN Lying About The George Zimmerman Tape

4) NBC’s Phony Exploding GM Truck

Catch what passed for an “apology” from NBC.

5) The Jayson Blair Scandal At The New York Times

The Devil made him do it…along with the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

“…The Times not only expressly took race into account, but also put Blair’s race above everything – accuracy, credibility and the paper’s reputation. It hired a kid barely out of college. In fact, it turns out he was not yet out of college. He had no professional journalistic experience, except at the Times. He screwed up over and over again and the paper had to print 50 corrections to articles he’d written…”

6) The Rolling Stone Rape Story

7) Hands Up, Don’t Shoot

We’d like to add three classics Hawkins omitted, the impact of which may have been even greater:

8) Walter Duranty whitewashes the sins of Stalin

9) Uncle Walter declares America has lost the Vietnam War 

Three Liberal liars and a Progressive douche pump.

9) In apparent imitation of the Battling Bitch of Bosnia…

…Brian Williams rewrites history

We could go on, but you get the picture.

Speaking of fake news…or in this case the seemingly unenlightened denial of what we know to be true…courtesy of the WSJ, Jim Mitchell, a retired Air Force officer, former CIA contractor and author of “Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists Trying to Destroy America” apologizes to Jim Mattis while informing him…

Sorry Mad Dog, Waterboarding Works

I respect Gen. Mattis, but he has never employed enhanced-interrogation techniques. I have.

While meeting with the New York Times last month, President-elect Donald Trump was asked about waterboarding. He explained that Gen. James Mattis, his choice for Defense secretary, said he “never found it to be useful.” The general reportedly advised, “Give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that.” At the risk of making a man nicknamed Mad Dog mad, I have to respectfully disagree.

Gen. Mattis, a retired Marine four-star, is by all accounts a gentleman, a scholar, and a hell of a warfighter. I have the greatest respect for him, and the full nuance of his views might have been lost in the retelling. But on the subject of questioning terrorists, I have some practical experience. (As do we.) In 2002 I was contracted by the Central Intelligence Agency to help put together what became its enhanced-interrogation program. I spent much of the following six years at “black sites” around the world, trying to extract lifesaving information from some of the worst people on the planet.

It is understandable that Gen. Mattis would say he never found waterboarding useful, because no one in the military has been authorized to waterboard a detainee. Thousands of U.S. military personnel have been waterboarded as part of their training, though the services eventually abandoned the practice after finding it too effective in getting even the most hardened warrior to reveal critical information.

During the war on terror, the CIA alone had been authorized to use the technique. I personally waterboarded the only three terrorists subjected to the tactic by the CIA. I also waterboarded two U.S. government lawyers, at their request, when they were trying to decide for themselves whether the practice was “torture.” They determined it was not.

I volunteered to be waterboarded myself and can assure you that it is not a pleasant experience. But no one volunteers to be tortured.

Waterboarding was never the first, nor the best, choice for most detainees. We started out with the “tea and sympathy” approach and only escalated to harsher methods when it became clear that the detainee held vital information that might save innocent lives and was determined not to provide it. We quickly moved away from enhanced interrogations as soon as the detainee showed even a little cooperation.

The people I dealt with were not run-of-the-mill battlefield detainees, but hardened terrorists. Men like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. These people were hellbent on bringing about further devastation.

I would ask Gen. Mattis this: Imagine being captured by America’s enemies. Would you give up important secrets that could get fellow Americans captured or killed in exchange for a Michelob and a pack of Marlboros?

In our case, it is not as if we had unlimited time to see if we could buddy up to terrorists to find out if another attack was on the horizon. There were multiple attacks being planned at the time. For example, not long after 9/11 the CIA was told of an al Qaeda effort to obtain nuclear fissionable material. When KSM was captured in 2003, we asked whether another major attack was in the works, and he responded, “Soon you will know.” We didn’t have time to dither.

Critics will point to the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee report that declared enhanced interrogation didn’t work. The investigation cost $40 million and took five years, yet investigators didn’t even speak to anyone involved in the program. Anyway, a report produced by an extremely partisan congressional committee deserves skepticism to begin with.

I am not advocating that Mr. Trump “bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding,” as he suggested during the campaign. But the president-elect needs to think through what to do when the U.S. captures a major terrorist who likely has information about an impending nuclear, chemical or biological attack. Is he prepared to say that if intelligence cannot be elicited using only the tactics contained in the Army Field Manual—as President Obama has directed—we will simply have to live with the consequences? (Not Obama…the rest of us!)

Some in government have argued that for the U.S. to maintain the moral high ground, all harsh interrogation tactics should remain illegal, as they have been since the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2016 was enacted.

Yet in a ticking-time-bomb scenario, should CIA officers just do whatever is necessary and hope for clemency in the trial that would follow? As someone who was thrown under the bus by the Obama Justice Department, I believe it is unreasonable to expect CIA officers to put their lives at risk to protect a government that will not do its best to protect them in return. Overemphasize political correctness, and we will be standing on the moral high ground, looking down into a smoking hole that used to be several city blocks.

Based on personal experience, the effectiveness of waterboarding is beyond question.  As for the claim such “torture” only encourages commensurate “barbarity” by our enemies, we offer two questions: (1). Did America’s unilateral adherence to generally humane standards of treatment for POWs in Vietnam induce the North to reciprocate?  (2). Does anyone really believe an enemy who regularly engages in this type of activity…

…is somehow going to act even more inhuman as a result of a little waterboarding?!?  The answer’s the same:

Next up, two items from Heat Street which highlight how terribly tenuous Liberals’ grip on reality is in almost every facet of life, be it threat identification…

Loyola Professor Calls Cops on Student Because He’s Wearing His Police Officer Uniform

“Josh Collins, a sheriff’s sergeant in New Orleans, attends classes at Loyola University when he is not working. This week, one of his professors called the police on Collins himself — apparently because he showed up in class wearing his uniform, which freaked out one of the other students.

...“Given how busy we have been this past week, including today, I showed up to class late and was still in full uniform because I didn’t have time to change.” he wrote, “Obviously, being in full police uniform, I was armed.” He says that a “fellow classmate complained to the professor of their uncomfortableness of having an armed police officer in the class”—even though he has sat in the same class for six weeks, so the student would have known who he was. 

His professor then called the police, but Collins says he was “not privileged to either of these conversations as they took place behind my back.” His professor then approached him and informed him that they had called the police, but the police never came because Collins was perfectly within the law.

Collins, who works in the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, points out in his Facebook post that it is incredibly ironic that the reaction to being scared of a police officer is to call the police…”

…or the most minimal knowledge of how to make an enterprise turn a profit:

Marxist Vegan Restaurant Closes After Customers No Longer Willing to Wait 40 Minutes for a Sandwich

“A “Marxist” “collectivist” “worker-run” restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, closed its doors this week after customers complained that they could no longer tolerate the bizarre hours, high prices and long lines.

The Garden Diner and Cafe—previously known as the Bartertown Diner—featured a vegan, vegetarian and raw food menu that had met with significant national acclaim. But the restaurant’s business model, which did not allow for bosses or managers, promised a “living wage” to all employees and a strong union, did not allow the restaurant to make enough profit to stay in business. 

People frequently noted on the restaurant’s Facebook page that they waited more than 40 minutes for a sandwich—and that’s when the diner was even open. Because the employees set the shop’s hours by group decision, the restaurant opened and closed at random times, leaving potential sandwich buyers totally confused. It turns out, in a shocking revelation to the store’s management, that those Soviet bread lines were a bug, not a feature of Communism.

…Even Bartertown’s inclusive, progressive politics couldn’t please everyone in their community. When the diner offered a free meal to Grand Rapids police officers as a “thank you” for keeping their neighborhood safe, local socialists complained that the business was abrogating its core ideals by siding with fascists and supporting “nearly all-white police force in this era of police violence.”

So, in a no-win situation, and discovering first hand the troubles that have plagued Communism for more than a century, the restaurant was forced to close its doors. As one community member put it, they discovered that “you can’t make payroll and your bills with Facebook and Tumblr ‘likes.’”

The owner, for his part, is admitting his mistake. When asked what his next venture would be, he told MLive.com that he was “taking a vacation.” How bourgeois.“

Since we’re on the subject of a political party utterly unfamiliar with what’s required to run a business, let alone basic economics, as Leah Barkoukis reports at Townhall.com... 

Obama Admin: Requiring Employees in US Speak English Is Discriminatory

One can only imagine how much more quickly the Bartertown Diner in Grand Rapids would have gone out of business had the employees who only opened when they wished couldn’t understand the orders their customers were placing.

And in the Environmental Moment, courtesy today of the WSJ, Kimberly Strassel records the triumphal sounds of…

Trump’s Federalist Revival

The president-elect’s EPA pick will restore balance to the federal-state relationship.

“Donald Trump had barely finished announcing his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency before the left started listing its million reasons why Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt was the worst nomination in the history of the planet: He’s an untrained anti-environmentalist. He’s a polluter. He’s a fossil-fuel fanatic, a lobbyist-lover, a climate crazy.

Mr. Pruitt is not any of those things. Here’s what he in fact is, and the real reason the left is frustrated: He’s a constitutional scholar, a federalist (and a lawyer). And for those reasons he is a sublime choice to knock down the biggest conceit of the Obama era—arrogant, overweening (and illegal) Washington rule.

We’ve lived so many years under the Obama reign that many Americans forget we are a federal republic, composed of 50 states. There isn’t a major statute on the books that doesn’t recognize this reality and acknowledge that the states are partners with—and often superior to—the federal government. That is absolutely the case with major environmental statues, from the Clean Air Act to the Clean Water Act to the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Much of Mr. Pruitt’s tenure as Oklahoma’s AG was about trying to stuff federal agencies back into their legal boxes. Most of the press either never understood this, or never wanted to. When the media wrote about state lawsuits against ObamaCare or the Clean Power Plan or the Water of the United States rule, the suggestion usually was that this litigation was ideologically motivated, and a naked attempt to do what a Republican Congress could not—tank the president’s agenda.

The basis of nearly every one of these lawsuits was in fact violations of states’ constitutional and statutory rights—and it is why so many of the cases were successful. It was all a valiant attempt to force the federal government to follow the law. And it has been a singular Pruitt pursuit…”

Which is why this misinformed little filly trying to match wits with Tucker Carlson becomes so apoplectic:

That…and the fact she had as much chance of besting Tucker in a debate as a one-legged man winning an ass-kicking contest!

In a related item forwarded by The Bossman, we learn of yet another example where taxpayers have been fleeced by a Progressive renewable power scam:

Report: Costly wind turbines projected to yield $1.39 in daily savings

Is there any other kind?!?

“A small Washington state city spent more than $100,000 on three “windmill-like turbines” – but any hopes for big savings appear to be blowing in the wind. The Peninsula Daily News reported that the Port Angeles turbines, which haven’t yet been turned on, are expected to generate $1.39 per day in electricity, or roughly $42 per month.

The turbines were meant to help illuminate a local park. Now, some city council members are having second thoughts about their unanimous approval for the project. “I did not realize they would produce so little energy. I wouldn’t have voted for it knowing it was that little,” City Councilwoman Sissi Bruch told The Peninsula Daily News.

Bruch later told Foxnews.com she was “disappointed” the project was not as efficient as intended, but says she remains supportive of the project. Bruch said the purpose of the “designers was to let people see how wind works.” Asked if the intent of the project was to provide a cost-efficient means of electricity, she said it was not the primary reason. “It is a piece of art,” she added…”

Ah, yes; in keeping with the perverted standards pioneered by Progressives with Piss Christ…

…wind turbines become The Left’s…

…latest masterpiece.  And again, the innocent are “left” to bear the costs, both physical and financial, for Progressives sleeping better at night.

Finally, on The Lighter Side…

Magoo