It’s Friday, October 27th, 2017…but before we begin, a headline hyping an effort which is far too little, if not far too late:

DOJ Starts to Make Amends for Tea Party Scandal

 

“…It’s a new era and now the Justice Department, under the purview of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, is beginning to make amends. The department announced Thursday that it has reached two settlements with right-leaning groups that were targeted. In his announcement, Sessions gave a brief history of the last administration’s inappropriate behavior, before pledging it won’t happen under his watch.

Sessions apologized on behalf of the department to those groups. “There is no excuse for this conduct,” he said. “Hundreds of organizations were affected by these actions, and they deserve an apology from the IRS.  We hope that today’s settlement makes clear that this abuse of power will not be tolerated.”

If you’ll forgive our French, “apologized“…

…?!?

Sessions, who has been singularly unimpressive, if not seriously damaging thus far as AG, can take his apology and put it wherst the Chubby Boy learned he was a sow, ‘stead of a boar.

If Jeff, whose craven recusal ushered in the Mueller Inquisition, truly wanted to demonstrate such abuse of power won’t be tolerated, Lois Lerner…

…would be under indictment and well on her way to prison, rather than enjoying an undeserved retirement on the taxpayer’s dime.

At least John Koskinen will soon be gone; but again, not in the manner his conduct…

The call from Republicans for Koskinen’s early exit came after lawmakers accused the IRS of destroying evidence during the congressional investigation into whether the tax agency improperly targeted conservative groups when applying for nonprofit, tax exempt status.

…so richly deserved: sporting an orange jumpsuit.

Since we’re on the subject of those deserving of orange jumpsuits, courtesy of Newsbusters.org via Jeff Foutch…

Bias: 1,000 Minutes for Trump/Russia ‘Collusion’ vs. 20 Seconds for Hillary/Russia Scandal

 

MSM bias?

WHAT bias?!?

Now, here’s The Gouge!

First up, an interesting commentary from NRO, as David French concludes…

Increasingly Partisan Americans Don’t Want ‘Unity

They want to win.

 

“Earlier this week, The Atlantic published an amusing piece by Molly Ball tracking a few members of Third Way, a center-left think tank, on their “post-election listening tour.” See if you can spot the flaws in their assumptions:

The trip was predicated on the optimistic notion that if Americans would only listen to each other, they would find more that united than divided them. This notion — the idea that, beyond our polarized politics, lies a middle, or third, path on which most can come together in agreement — is Third Way’s raison d’etre. It is premised on the idea that partisanship is bad, consensus is good, and that most Americans would like to meet in the middle.

This is classic, well-meaning liberalism: Bring people together, explore common concerns, and emerge with a (liberal) consensus. People don’t like division, the thinking goes. They want unity.

Or, maybe not. It turns out that most folks think their beliefs are fine and opposing beliefs are bad. Virtually the only thing everyone agrees upon is that Millennials are annoying…”

Let’s examine the specific policies or programs on which Progressives have expressed any willingness whatsoever to compromise:

Abortion?  Not “no“, but “HELL NO!!!”  Not even to the point of condemning Kermit Gosnell for the serial killer he was.

Gun control? Diane Feinstein’s concealed-carry permit and Michael Bloomberg’s armed security detail excepted, only if the end result is total and absolute confiscation.

Immigration reform?  Certainly,…assuming your definition of “immigration reform” prescribes the presence of anyone able to illegally enter the United States as constituting a duly designated representative of the Dimocratic Party.

Healthcare?  Provided you combine “single” and “payer”, i.e., “Socialized medicine”, in one term, regardless of the waiting periods and treatment exclusions which inevitably accompany same.

EntitlementsSure, as long as we can always tax the rich.  After all, contrary to reality…

…there’s plenty of other people’s cash to throw around in perpetuity!

And does anyone doubt, even for a moment, when the government comes for the possessions of Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Mark Cuban, Warren Buffet and George Soros, these Men of the People will meekly surrender their wealth without resistance?

Yeah,…

Frankly, we can’t think of a single issue on which The Left is willing to grant concessions, let alone stop demonizing Conservatives as uncaring racists for voicing reasoned opposition.

Contemplate for a moment Hollywood’s determined opposition to Trump, then the fact it was an otherwise worthless actor, John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Abraham Lincoln, the greatest President in history.

Next, consider the howling opposition to Tim Tebow’s reverent respect

…versus The Left’s obsequious obedience in the face of Colin Kaepernick’s self-serving

disrespect.  Any questions?!?

In a related item, FOX News presents another example of the racism rampant in the land:

Oakland A’s player Bruce Maxwell says pro-Trump waiter refused to serve him at Alabama restaurant

 

“Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell is claiming that a waiter in his Alabama hometown refused him service after recognizing Maxwell as the MLB player who took a knee during “The Star Spangled Banner” last month.

He was like, ‘You’re the guy that took the knee?’ He goes, ‘I voted for Trump and I stand for everything he stands for,” Maxwell revealed during an interview with TMZ Sports.

…After their brief exchange with the waiter, Maxwell said his friend got the attention of the restaurant’s manager, who responded by putting another waiter on their table.

Maxwell also told TMZ he felt he was racially profiled by the waiter, and said that the councilman, who is also a high-school friend of his, is African American. “That’s where I’m from,” added Maxwell, who is the son of a U.S. Army veteran. “Unless you’re subjected to it, you won’t understand it, you won’t feel it. But it’s like, I’m 26 years old, I’m very respectful, I’m very educated. And it still happens to this day. And so…that’s the reason I kneel.”…”

Except for, in the best tradition of Al Whore, one decidedly inconvenient truth:

Waiter: MLB catcher Bruce Maxwell made up story about service refusal over anthem protest

 

“Oakland A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell, 26, claimed this week that a waiter in his Alabama hometown of Huntsville refused him service after identifying him as the MLB player who took the knee during “The Star Spangled Banner” last month — only the waiter has a very different version of events, and told Fox News that was far from what went down.

“He is outright lying. This is really upsetting as he was given full service, I didn’t even know who Bruce Maxwell was,” Matt Henry, a 42-year-old waiter at Keegan’s Public House, told Fox News.This all started because I carded his friend who wanted to order a beer.”

According to Henry, an Alabama native, Maxwell was dining with local Democratic councilman Devyn Keith and another friend who produced an expired ID, and the server refused to serve him a drink —  which upset the friend, who followed him into the kitchen. “He asked me, don’t you know who Bruce Maxwell is, and told me I was making everyone feel uncomfortable. Nobody was even paying attention to them,” Henry claimed. “I didn’t know anything about him or the kneeling. All I know is a friend of mine 15 years ago lost his job for serving someone a drink who happened to be underage, so if anyone looks under 30, I’m going to card them.”

The waiter said that the councilman then complained to the restaurant’s manager about Maxwell being uncomfortable, and the manager simply swapped me to another table, and that it was “no big deal.”

The restaurant manager on duty that day, Anne Whalen — who requested the restaurant name not be used without permission from the owner — also told Fox News that Maxwell’s story being portrayed in the media could not be further from the truth…”

One can only laugh at the “very respectful, very educated” Maxwell failing to see the irony in his assertion, the facts to the contrary notwithstanding.  He purports to possess the right to express his view through demonstrating disrespect for his country; but a waiter in Alabama, even in theory, by exercising his equally-important opinion, must convey racism.

And this towards an unknown MLB player who, quite frankly, appears as black as…

…Jorge Zimmerman:

Sorry, but our…

…detector is pegged like the depth gauge on a foundering U-Boat on this one!!!

Discerning the truth in this story is about as tough as determining whether Hillary funded the Trump dossier…or her husband had sex with “that woman”…let alone raped four or five others.

Which brings us to the latest from the great Victor Davis Hanson, courtesy of his personal blog:

The ‘Never Trump’ Construct

 

The president’s fiercest critics still do not grasp that Trump is a symptom, not the cause of the GOP’s internal strife. For all the talk of a Civil War in the Republican party over Donald Trump, 90 percent of Republicans ended up voting for him.

So a vocal Never Trump Republican establishment had not much effect on the 2016 election. Voters do not carry conservative magazines to the polls. They are not swayed much by talking heads, and on Election Day they do not they print out conservative congressional talking points from their emails.

John McCain and Susan Collins are as renegade now as they were obstructionist in 2004. If in 2016 it is said that John McCain cannot forgive President Trump for his 2016 primary statements, it was also said in 2004 that John McCain could not forgive President Bush for how he won the 2000 primaries. (If it walks like an adulterous, self-serving RINO douchebag, talks like an adulterous, self-serving RINO douchebag and votes like an adulterous, self-serving RINO douchebag,…any questions?!?) Trump is called a Nazi and a fascist. But so was George W. Bush in 2006. Reagan in the campaign and during his first few months as president was slandered as a pleasant dunce as often as Trump is smeared as a mean dunce. If neocons are now on MSNBC in 2017 trashing a Republican president, paleocons were doing the same in 2006 over Iraq. Parties always have dissidents.

Donald Trump got about the same percentage of the Republican vote (about 90 percent) as John McCain won in 2008 — slightly less than Mitt Romney’s supposed 93 percent in 2012. If Romney’s 93 percent is the standard of party fealty (Obama usually pulled in about 92 percent of the Democratic vote), then it is hard to know whether the 3 percentage points fewer of Republicans who could not stomach McCain were about the same as the 3 percentage points fewer who were Never Trump. In either case, 90 percent party loyalty was not good enough for McCain, and even 93 percent did not win Romney an election. Both, unlike Trump, lost too many Reagan Democrats and Independents in the swing states of the Electoral College.

There should not be any bitterness over the successful 2016 election, unless the pro-Trump side believes that they could have won the popular vote or more Senate seats if they’d had Never Trump support, or unless the Never Trumpers wish that more Republicans had stayed home or voted for some else. Otherwise, the civil war of opinion makers changed few opinions in 2016.

“The exit’s over there, Bob; where it says, “Don’t let the door hit you in your worthless a*s on the way out!”

In conclusion, we should again remember three general principles: First, neither side has yet published policy manifestos that transcend Donald J. Trump or radically contradict the general protocols of past Republican presidents. There is no “Contract with America” that defines Trumpers or Never Trumpers. For now, it is all nebulous and boils down to whether one believes that the controversial messenger trumps, or does not trump, the mostly shared message.

Second, the war is mostly infighting among politicos, pundits, politicians, and media people and so far does not necessarily change the realities of the voting public. We saw that reality in 2016 when the thunderous damnation Trump received from his own party had no profound effect on his candidacy.

Finally, the economy and the avoidance of war will determine Trump’s popularity, as they have for most other presidents. If we achieve a 3 percent GDP growth rate over the next six months and a principled pushback to Iran and North Korea that does not result in war, then Trump will do well in the midterms and probably be reelected. But if the economy or stock market tanks, or we enter into an existential and messy war, then Trump will fail, regardless of what either his supporters or detractors say.

Meanwhile, the administrative state expands, the debt is headed for $21 trillion, crass identity politics tear the nation apart, the effort to restore deterrence abroad grows ever more dangerous, and the campuses, Hollywood, the NFL, and the media are reminding us that progressive politics are now our culture’s orthodoxy, vital for success in nearly all fields. And dealing with all that is the only conservative fight that counts.

Sorry, but at some point, you take what you can get and move on.  The Republic can survive The Donald, largely due to his judicial appointments.  As noted above, the same cannot be said of…

…She Who Will Not Be Named!

Which brings us to The Lighter Side:

Then there’s these four gems highlighting Hollywood/Liberal hypocrisy forwarded by Balls Cotton:

Finally, we’ll call it a week with the Science Section, courtesy of Space.com:

Star may have devoured 15 alien planets

 

What’s more amazing is Rosie still had room for dessert!

Magoo



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