Rise of Anti-Semitic Incidents in the U.S. (VIDEO)

Perhaps there's an increase in anti-Semitic attacks, but it takes a Republican in office to have leftist outlets take them seriously. When far-left jihadists call for the annihilation of the Jews in Israel --- "From the desert to the sea, Palestine will be free..." --- it's crickets.

At CNN:

Berkeley Republican Describes Night of Terror, Says Agitators Were Trying to 'Burn Us Alive'

At Instapundit, "AS KURT SCHLICHTER SAYS, THE LEFT HATES YOU, AND WANTS YOU DEAD."

Roger Stone, The Making of the President, 2016

Well, it's supposed to be "in the tradition of Theodore White's landmark books," which is an awfully good pedigree.

At Amazon, Roger Stone, The Making of the President, 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution.

Why is Popular Culture So Incredibly Vulgar?

It's Paul Joseph Watson:

Patriots Super Bowl Win Sparks Torrent of Racial Hate

God, that's horrible.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "Social media erupts with racially charged rage at Belichick, Brady: ‘I hate seeing white people happy’."

PREVIOUSLY: "I Didn't Realize the Super Bowl Was So Politicized."

Chrissy Teigen Post-Baby Body (VIDEO)

For Sports Illustrated:

Nonie Darwish, Wholly Different

Out February 27th.

At Amazon, Nonie Darwish, Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values.

Evelyn Taft's Wet Weather Forecast

Lots of rain today, and continuing through the morning.


Here's the lovely Ms. Evelyn, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Super Bowl Commercials

Disgusting politicization of sports.

At London's Daily Mail:

Anti-American leftist corporations troll #PresidentTrump with stupid pro-diversity commercials. #SuperBowl https://t.co/zzSs06F4K6

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 6, 2017

Mike Lofgren, The Deep State

*BUMPED.*

I picked up a copy.

Check it out, at Amazon, The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government.

Remember to always read widely and know your enemy. (Plus, you know me: I love all the crazy leftist theories these days. There's never a dull moment, lol.)

I Didn't Realize the Super Bowl Was So Politicized

Really.

I seriously didn't know the Super Bowl had become a site of contestation in the polarization wars.

Apparently, as a big Trump supporter, I was supposed to be backing New England. The only problem? I hate the Patriots, and have so consistently for 15 years, after the "Tuck Rule Game" at Foxboro Stadium, January 19, 2002.

On Twitter last night:

A #SuperBowl Awash in Politics, on Social Media and Off the Field. #SB51 #Patriots https://t.co/TesD1Qbtjj

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 6, 2017

First Trump.
Then the Senate and House.
Now the Patriots.
Democrats now be all like: pic.twitter.com/5Hu5RNmCMI

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) February 6, 2017

pic.twitter.com/f8Pvv3TXib

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) February 6, 2017

Kellyanne Conway on Hannity's (VIDEO)

The left really has the guns out for Ms. Conway. CNN reportedly rebuked the White House regarding a Sunday Conway appearance on the network, which is weird, since the same folks were moaning two weeks ago that she wouldn't come on. Now they're considering "a permanent ban." What's happened is degenerate leftists have fixed on attacking Ms. Conway's "credibility," obviously because she's so freakin' good at deflecting debased radical left smears.

At Memeorandum, for example, "That MSNBC Interview Was Not the First Time Kellyanne Conway Referred to the “Bowling Green Massacre”."

And at Twitchy, "PUH-LEASE! CNN of ALL outlets has the nerve to question Kellyanne Conway’s credibility?!"

She'll be back on CNN before you know. Watch.

Tom Brady Celebrates with Wife Giselle and the Kids

At Drunken Stepfather, "MORNING HANGOVER DUMP OF THE DAY."

She was really into that Pats win.

Find yourself someone who loves you like Giselle loves Tom pic.twitter.com/OrJGInqUIO

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) February 6, 2017

BONUS: "Steplinks of the Day."

George Orwell's '1984' Making a Comeback

*BUMPED.*

Heh.

Funny how the book's about a communist totalitarian regime.

Leftists aren't too bright that way, lol.

At Publisher's Weekly, "Orwell's '1984' Surges After Trump's First Week."

It's a #1 Bestseller, at Amazon, 1984.

Time Won't Let Me

From yesterday morning's Egg McMuffin run, at the Sound L.A.

It's the Outsiders, a "garage rock" band who went to #5 on the Billboard chart with this song.

Enjoy!

More blogging tonight.

See See Rider
The Animals
10:41 AM

Hallelujah
Jeff Buckley
10:35 AM

Me and You and a Dog Named Boo
Lobo
10:31 AM

Born To Be Wild
Steppenwolf
10:28 AM

Thank You for Being a Friend
Andrew Gold
10:23 AM

Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
Carole King
10:19 AM

Time Won't Let Me
The Outsiders
10:11 AM

Gemini Dream
The Moody Blues
10:07 AM

You've Made Me So Very Happy
Blood, Sweat & Tears
10:02 AM

Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers

No time to read this one right now, but I'll get to it one of these days.

Wood's a great writer. He had the much-talked about piece on Islamic State a couple of years back, at the Atlantic, "What ISIS Really Wants."

At Amazon, Graeme Wood, The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State.

Atlanta Falcons' Matt Ryan Wins NFL MVP

He won Offensive Player of the Year as well.

At USA Today:

Sign of things to come? Ryan beats Brady for #NFL MVP. @PatriarchTree @lamblock https://t.co/tX62nwc9sI

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 5, 2017

And ESPN:

Matt Ryan has won the 2016 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year award. pic.twitter.com/ra1rX32AZe

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) February 5, 2017

Sunday Cartoons

At Flopping Aces, "Sunday Funnies."



Also at Theo's, "Cartoon Roundup..."

Cartoon Credit: A.F. Branco, "Radical Ban Saw."

Rule 5 Super Bowl Sunday

Let's get the ball rolling here, at London's Daily Mail, "Super Bowl wives and girlfriends giving Giselle a run for her money: The most glamorous Super Bowl ever! Gisele gets a run for her money as stars like Adriana Lima and Olivia Culpo lead the rest of the WAGs at this year's clash between the Patriots and the Falcons."

Also, at Pirate's Cove, "Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup," and "If All You See……is a horrible football which comes from evil carbon polluting pigs, you might just be a Warmist."

Also at Odie's, "Superbowl Sunday ~ Woodsterman Style."

At Proof Positive, "Friday Night Babe -- Deena Dill!"

More, at Knuckledraggin', "Time for a Selfie!"

And at 90 Miles from Tyranny, "Morning Mistress - Anti-Leftist Edition...", and "Hot Pick of the Late Night."

BroBible, "Kaili Thorne, Bella’s Hot Sister, Got Naked For Some New Pics Because That’s How This Family Rolls."

Drunken Stepfather, "STEPLINKS OF THE DAY."

At WWTDD, "Shameless Super Bowl Clicks -- Banned Super Bowl Commercials, Better Than Un-Banned (VIDEO)."

A Slice of Cheesecake, "Arline Judge."

Still more, at the Hostages, "Big Boob Friday."

BONUS: At the Other McCain, "Screaming NYU Protester Woman Identified as Anti-Trump Porn ‘Artist’."

Photo Credit: Beth Lily, via Will Ashton on Twitter.

The Left's Outrage Fatigue Problem

Heh.

This is the best.

At Politico, "The Democrats face up to their Trump problem: The base is eager to protest the president, but elected leaders worry about outrage fatigue":

The Democrats face up to their Trump problem https://t.co/7uBvc0WlN5 pic.twitter.com/5dR52DAhXe

— POLITICO (@politico) February 5, 2017

Democrats don’t know how long they’ll be able to keep up the pace of protests against President Donald Trump — and they’re worried Trump and his team are counting on them to run out of energy before the White House does.

Two weeks into the Trump administration, party leaders have already reached a frantic, fevered pitch, throwing around talk of constitutional crisis and raising the specter of impeachment.

“The thing that we don’t want to do is anesthetize the public with dozens and dozens of press conferences and marquee events,” said Seattle Mayor Ed Murray. “Then it’ll just become background noise. I’m worried that’s exactly what they’re trying to maneuver us into doing.”

Democrats are having as much trouble defusing Trump now that he’s in the White House as they did all through last year’s campaign. Murray said he’s seen neither a clear understanding among leaders in Washington of how far left their base has careened in just the past few weeks nor the emergence of any infrastructure among progressive groups for turning what’s going on in the streets into concerted opposition.

“The question is: How do we respond beyond that?” Murray said. “I’m a little worried that we’re not there.”

House Democrats head to their retreat in Baltimore this week trying to come up with an answer.

“Some people on social media are already saying, ‘Yes! Impeach the guy.’ No. I think any time you’re talking about impeachment, which is historically extremely significant, that is not something you do on a whim,” said Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas), explaining that he used the word himself earlier in the week as a warning of where things might go. “I think our response should be reasonable, it should not be exaggerated — but we fundamentally have to protect the integrity of the republic.”

Some of his colleagues will boycott Trump’s address before a joint session of Congress at the end of the month. Others are planning to go but come up with a way to protest that makes a splash. They’re trolling, referring to “President Bannon” in the hopes of goading Trump into sidelining Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, if he thinks people are seeing him as a puppet.

“I plan on being there at this point in time, I think it’s part of my responsibility,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. “I’m there to witness and hear what he has to say, and respond in kind.”

“We are going to continue to be the bulwark against the man. We’re going to stop him at every opportunity we have,” Crowley added. “This is going to be a gift that keeps on giving in some respects.”

Democrats are mobilizing around Republican members' town halls to protest Obamacare repeal. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) is demanding that Mar-a-Lago, Trump's exclusive club in Florida, release its members list.

Some are trying other strategies of chipping away at Trump’s authority. Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) says he’s looking to hit the House staffers who worked with the White House on crafting the travel ban and signed nondisclosure agreements that he says made them into employees of the administration too. “Sounds like double-dipping to me,” Gutiérrez said in an interview off the House floor on Wednesday. “There might be a law against that.”

But Democrats readily acknowledge Trump won last year in part by sparking so many simultaneous outrages among the left that they all blended together. Trump’s White House so far is following that model...

Keep reading --- and relishing the flailing idiot leftists.

Rep. Tom McClintock Faces Angry Constituents at Roseville Town Hall Meeting (VIDEO)

McClintock's interviewed at the video, where near the end he says, "There's an intolerance on the political left that's running very deep, and the fact that the police had to intervene is a serious indicator of the growing violence of the left --- this is very disturbing!"

See the Los Angeles Times, "Hundreds of people showed up for a town hall with California's Rep. Tom McClintock, and things got intense."

And at the Sacremento Bee, "McClintock exits with police escort after raucous town hall meeting in Roseville":

Facing a packed auditorium and raucous crowd, Republican Congressman Tom McClintock on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017, defended his party’s national agenda and voiced strong support for President Donald Trump’s disputed executive actions to scale back Obamacare, ban refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Facing a packed auditorium and raucous crowd, Republican Rep. Tom McClintock on Saturday defended his party’s national agenda and voiced strong support for President Donald Trump’s controversial executive actions to scale back Obamacare, ban visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Vote him out,” hundreds of demonstrators chanted outside the Tower Theatre in downtown Roseville, the Republican-heavy population center of McClintock’s sprawling congressional district. Inside the theater, more than 200 people gathered for a town-hall event hosted by McClintock.

Attendees, some carrying signs that read “Resist,” “Dump Tom McTrump” and “Climate change is real,” pressed McClintock to denounce Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, acknowledge the science supporting the human causes of climate change, and oppose Trump’s executive order temporarily restricting refugee admissions to the U.S.

“I believe that order is constitutional,” said McClintock, one of several comments that elicited boos at the hourlong event.

McClintock’s visit drew hundreds of people, most of whom had come to express opposition to the new administration. Many identified themselves as liberal Democrats and progressives, while party registration in McClintock’s district – which incorporates all or part of 10 counties spanning from Tahoe to Yosemite – is solidly Republican.

“This is really all about resisting the Trump agenda,” said Wendy Wood, chairwoman of Indivisible Sierra Nevada, a local chapter of a political organization formed in response to the election. “Most of us have never participated in political activism of any sort. Something is happening here, and people here are not happy with (Trump) and McClintock. We’re here to vote them out.”

Roseville police and fire officials capped attendance inside the theater at roughly 200 people. Those left outside voiced frustration about being locked out of the theater, some saying they had driven for hours simply to see McClintock face to face.

“We just wanted to be able to ask questions of our representative and share our thoughts on key issues,” wrote Lauren Lake in an email. “I drove hours over a snowy pass to be there … we were told that the venue was at capacity and no one else would be allowed in.”

Inside the theater, McClintock took about a dozen audience questions. Some of the most passionate comments came from people who said they feared losing access to health care if Republicans press forward to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a clear replacement.

“What do you expect seniors and people with disabilities with low income to do if you take away our Medicare and Medicaid that we rely on to literally stay alive?” asked Amanda Barnes, who said she was paralyzed from her waist down after a hit-and-run accident in a crosswalk five years ago.

McClintock said his party did not yet have a replacement plan, but that there were several Republican-backed proposals still taking shape...

Continue.

McClintock's a solid conservative, but he's really earning my respect here by facing down this deranged leftist mob. You had some guy a couple of weeks ago slip out the side door rather than stand up to the progressive goon squad, so McClintock's clearly showing he can take a political beating and get right back up.

More power to him.

Via Memeorandum.

Owner of Twelve Rounds Brewing Company Apologizes for Facebook Rant Slamming 'Women's March' Against Donald Trump

I suspect I'd be pretty much completely apolitical if I was a business owner, knowing that my views would get me targeted by the left's fascist thought police.

But this dude Daniel Murphy, owner of Twelve Rounds Brewing, must've thought he enjoyed a right to free expression under the new regime. He thought wrong, and has apologized profusely (to save his business, obviously).

At Breitbart, "Investors Dump Brewery After Facebook Post Opposing Women’s March."

And at the Sacramento Bee, "Can Twelve Rounds survive a social media disaster that turned off customers?":

Hey ladies, the owner of 12 Rounds brewery in Sacramento has some special feedback on the Women's March ... pic.twitter.com/RpdBvd8VpE

— Nick Miller (@NickMiller510) January 24, 2017

Why do voicemails about 12 Rounds Brewing keep saying owner has right to say what he said? That misses the point. https://t.co/48nz3YzaT7

— Blair A. Robertson Ⓥ (@Blarob) February 5, 2017

Do craft beer patrons have a certain political bent? Are they likely to be more liberal, moderate or conservative? Do they wear way more plaid flannel shirts than the general population?

If you’re in the hospitality industry, here’s the only answer that should matter to you: It doesn’t matter.

When it comes to political views, breweries should have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Arguing about politics, religion and conspiracy theories are simply bad for business.

Understood by most already, this simple lesson came screaming into our collective consciousness nearly two weeks ago when award-winning brewer Daniel Murphy’s personal Facebook posts leaked into the public sphere, beginning with one where he said he was “disgusted” with the Women’s March. To put it charitably, some of Murphy’s other political and social views fall well outside the bounds of polite or even reasonable political discourse.

Can you suggest that the nation’s first black president was actually a Muslim and a traitor without decimating all that good will you’ve spent months building up? Can you use racist terms for Pakistanis? Why would you even go there? All those millennial couples and their cute kids and fluffy dogs I saw sitting outside drinking beer and socializing last summer? They likely don’t want to be connected to that kind of rhetoric.

To be a successful business that optimizes profits and is good for the community, a brewery should be a welcome place for people of all walks of life and political perspectives. This has nothing to do with the First Amendment or one man’s right to give his opinion. It’s Business 101.

Is there a way out of this hole Murphy has dug himself?

I asked straight-shooting Evan Elsberry of the popular restaurant Evan’s Kitchen, which is across 57th Street. He’s been handling the food program for Twelve Rounds – you can place an order from the brewery and have Elsberry’s superb cooking delivered in minutes. Several days ago, he walked across the street to check in with Murphy.

“I told him, ‘I don’t agree with what you said, but I’m going to stand by you as a business owner,’ ” Elsberry told me. “I know the guy personally and feel bad for him. It’s a good business. He just really messed up.”

Elsberry has seen the short-term spike in attention. He’s even benefited from it.

“In the last four days, I was swamped with orders from the brewery. It’s not hurting his business yet, but it’s going to catch up to him.”

A new company, Disrupt Marketing, was so intrigued by Twelve Rounds’ predicament that company co-founder Soreath Hok, a former news producer at KCRA Channel 3, wrote a detailed Facebook post with an abundance of excellent advice. She says the brewery needs to create personal, sincere videos that address those who feel let down or insulted by Murphy’s posts. Here’s an excerpt...

Keep reading.

This isn't the same as arguing for religious freedom. I'd be more behind this guy if he was saying he wasn't going to cater some homosexual wedding. But this is Facebook. You're just putting your views out there, throwing caution to the wind. I think he learned his lesson. He wants to stay in business. He's going to be buttoning it up.

Ben Garrison Milo Yiannopoulos Cartoon

More cartoons later with my Sunday roundup.

Meanwhile, here's the great Ben Garrison, keeping with our weekend theme of left-wing fascism:

New #BenGarrison #cartoon #VirtueSignaling #berkeley Style #berkeleyRiots #MiloYiannopoulos more at https://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/knRH16rwRW

— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) February 3, 2017

Heh: CNN's Marc Lamont Hill Can't Name One Example of Right-Wing Rioters on Campuses

That's because "right-wing rioters" is an oxymoron.

Heh.

At Instapundit, "WELL, TO BE FAIR, NEITHER CAN ANYONE ELSE: CNN’s Marc Lamont Hill Can’t Name One Example of Right-Wing Rioters on Campuses."

Nancy Pelosi Claims Democrats Are 'Capitalists' (VIDEO)

This has to be one of the biggest laughers of the new year.

The Democrats are "capitalist"?

Well, no.

The Democrats are a quasi-Marxist socialist party that can't stand the free market. The only thing holding back leftists from nationalizing huge sections of the American economy is the historic commitment to free enterprise by the American people. Polls do show lagging support among the young for the free market, but of course these people are idiots. One of the greatest benefits of electing President Trump is the brake he puts on Democrat attacks on the free market economy. Trump's literally saving this country from ruin. And leftists hate him for it.

In any case, more from John Sexton, at Hot Air, "Nancy Pelosi on Democrats: ‘We’re capitalist and that’s just the way it is. However…’"



More at PuffHo, "Why Nancy Pelosi’s Comments About Capitalism Disappointed Progressives."

Benjamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter, Politics by Other Means

*BUMPED.*

I read this book back in grad school. It's seems more relevant than ever today.

At Amazon, Benjamin Ginsberg and Martin Shefter, Politics by Other Means: Politicians, Prosecutors, and the Press from Watergate to Whitewater (Third Edition).

Danielle Gersh's Super Bowl Sunday Forecast

Well, it might rain in Houston tomorrow, but L.A.'s not expecting rain until late Sunday and early Monday morning.

Here's the lovely Ms. Danielle:

President Trump's Weekly Address: 'From Now On, It's Going to Be America First...' (VIDEO)

I used to post Barack Hussein's weekly addresses, always fighting off the gag reflex.

But now we've got the new regime in Washington, and I can start posting these clips again, now with absolute relish.

God bless this president. He's already making America great again. I love it.

Milo Yiannopoulos: 'I'm very popular on campus because I talk about free speech and free expression...' (VIDEO)

Here's Milo on Judge Jeanine's tonight:



And don't forget about his new book, at Amazon, Dangerous.

8 Million People Could Be Deported Under Trump's Immigration Order

At the Los Angeles Times (via Memeorandum):

When President Trump ordered a vast overhaul of immigration law enforcement during his first week in office, he stripped away most restrictions on who should be deported, opening the door for roundups and detentions on a scale not seen in nearly a decade.

Up to 8 million people in the country illegally could be considered priorities for deportation, according to calculations by the Los Angeles Times. They were based on interviews with experts who studied the order and two internal documents that signal immigration officials are taking an expansive view of Trump’s directive.

Far from targeting only “bad hombres,” as Trump has said repeatedly, his new order allows immigration agents to detain nearly anyone they come in contact with who has crossed the border illegally. People could be booked into custody for using food stamps or if their child receives free school lunches.

The deportation targets are a much larger group than those swept up in the travel bans that sowed chaos at airports and seized public attention over the past week. Fewer than 1 million people came to the U.S. over the past decade from the seven countries from which most visitors are temporarily blocked.

Deportations of this scale, which has not been publicly totaled before, could have widely felt consequences: Families would be separated. Businesses catering to immigrant customers may be shuttered. Crops could be left to rot, unpicked, as agricultural and other industries that rely on immigrant workforces face labor shortages. U.S. relations could be strained with countries that stand to receive an influx of deported people, particularly in Latin America. Even the Social Security system, which many immigrants working illegally pay into under fake identification numbers, would take a hit.

The new instructions represent a wide expansion of President Obama’s focus on deporting only recent arrivals, repeat immigration violators and people with multiple criminal violations. Under the Obama administration, only about 1.4 million people were considered priorities for removal.

“We are going back to enforcement chaos — they are going to give lip service to going after criminals, but they really are going to round up everybody they can get their hands on,” said David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. and an immigration lawyer for more than two decades...

We're not "going back to chaos." That's ridiculous. We're enforcing the last to prevent FURTHER chaos from the leftist open-borders agenda.

Keep reading.

Britney Spears Wardrobe Malfunction

At WWTDD, "Britney Spears Tits Fall Out on Stage (VIDEO)":

🐯🐯🐯 photo by @denisetruscello pic.twitter.com/337hdRnzPb

— Britney Spears (@britneyspears) January 27, 2017

Two plus years of an overwrought lip-synched Vegas show for Japanese tourists and drunk bachelorettes and something finally happened worth watching. This must be how those NatGeo photographers feel after being camped in a cold wet foxhole for months on end waiting to watch rare capybaras fucking.

Britney Spears suffered a wardrobe malfunction on stage during her show when her tit almost fell out of her costume. Suffered seems about as accurate as wardrobe malfunction when discussing what was probably either a completely planned Janet Jackson halftime moment or something everybody knew was bound to happen given the cut of her outfit. Spears' has had nonstop costume rips and tears and busted seams throughout the course of her big budget gay dancer extravaganza. Her wardrobe people know their suits better than NASA engineers understand the ones wrapped around astronauts being launched into space.

Faked or not, the tit is real.

Tomi Lahren: Antifas 'Claim to Stand Against Hate, Intolerance, and Bigotry ... Are All About Love, Tolerance, and Acceptance, Unless It Offends Them...' (VIDEO)

Here's the lovely Tomi Lahren, at Faceook, "I Stand with Milo."



PREVIOUSLY: "Lauren Southern: A Right Wing Call to Self-Defense (VIDEO)."

We're going to have to fight back against these thugs. Simple as that.

Lauren Southern: A Right Wing Call to Self-Defense (VIDEO)

She's a cool chick.

And following-up, "Only 'Antifas' Allowed 'Free Speech'."

Berkeley Riots Provoked by Freedom Center Campaign (VIDEO)

David Horowitz appears on Lou Dobbs' show, at the video.

And here's Matthew Vadum, at FrontPage Magazine, "Berkeley fascists shut down Milo Yiannopoulos’s scheduled anti-sanctuary campus speech":

Leftist UC Berkeley students and outsiders rioted last night to prevent Milo Yiannopoulos from delivering a David Horowitz Freedom Center-sponsored speech demanding the end of “sanctuary campuses” that harbor illegal aliens. Milo's address, which was canceled amid violent mob attacks, fire-setting, and wanton property destruction, had been scheduled to mark the launch of the Freedom Center’s #nosanctuarycampusforcriminals campaign.

“One thing we do know for sure: the Left is absolutely terrified of free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down,” Yiannopoulos, tech editor at Breitbart News, said after being safely evacuated from the campus.

“This is what tolerance looks like at UC Berkeley,” Mike Wright, a Berkeley College Republicans member told SFGate as smoke bombs exploded nearby. He said paint was thrown on his person. “It’s sad.”

“The so-called ‘sanctuary movement’ is a concerted effort by left-wing administrations in major cities to thwart the purposes of the Patriot Act, undermine federal immigration law, and cripple the efforts of the Department of Homeland security to protect American citizens from terrorist threats,” David Horowitz, founder and CEO of the Freedom Center, said on Jan. 31.

“Thanks to the efforts of left-wing activists and administrators, this seditious movement has now spread to our colleges and universities.”

Backed by the Freedom Center, Yiannopoulos, an outspoken gay, Jewish, Greek-born British citizen who ardently supports President Trump, was on campus to demand that federal grants to UC Berkeley be withdrawn and that university officials like UC President Janet Napolitano and Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks who endanger their students with their illegal alien-shielding policies be prosecuted.

UC President Napolitano, formerly President Obama’s Homeland Security Secretary, is under the microscope because, as head of the taxpayer-supported University of California system, she is deliberately harboring hundreds of illegal aliens attending UC system schools. She has forbidden campus police from working with immigration law enforcement and provided $5 million to aid the illegals UC is sheltering from ICE.

The University of California system even provides legal aid to illegal alien students who wish to keep breaking U.S. immigration laws.

The executive director of the University of California Undocumented Legal Services Center at the UC Davis School of Law explained to Rolling Stone in December what a sanctuary campus was.

“Basically it’s a concept that says, ‘You’re safe here, and your immigration status, we won’t ask,’” said Maria Blanco. “’We won’t turn you over. We won’t turn your records over.’”

Not all the rioters were from Berkeley.

Many of those dressed black bloc-style so police can’t identify them appear to be associated with the “antifa” movement. Antifa may be short for anti-fascist but these thugs, usually a mix of anarchists and communists, use violent fascistic tactics against their targets. These terrorists do not tolerate opposing views. Before the riots broke out those gathered carried signs that read “hate speech is not free speech.” Signs from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PLS) also showed up in Berkeley.

Antifa is also involved in the protests and melees at airports nationwide launched in opposition to President Trump’s Executive Order 13769 which as of Jan. 27 temporarily banned visitors from a handful of terrorism-plagued Muslim nations.

The Berkeley police had reportedly been given a “stand down” order which allowed rioters to generate mayhem. Later when the police declared the throng of troublemakers an unlawful assembly and ordered those present to leave, the mob chanted “you go first!”

After leaving the campus Yiannopoulos reflected on the night’s events in a video on his Facebook page...

Keep reading.

In the Mail: Alexander Hill, The Red Army and the Second World War

*BUMPED.*

This just came today a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of Cambridge University Press.

At Amazon, Alexander Hill, The Red Army and the Second World War.

I'm going to read a couple of chapters right now. More blogging later today.

@PatriarchTree In the mail, from Cambridge University Press: "Destroy the German occupiers!" pic.twitter.com/lbrex2HC2j

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) January 18, 2017

'Antifas' Will Come After You, So-Called 'Liberals' Too

People are going to get killed.

Following-up, "The Old Gray Lady Promotes the Black Bloc: 'Anarchists Vow to Halt Far Right's Rise'."

Seen on Twitter:

Graffiti at BAMFA building #MiloatCal pic.twitter.com/teHOWD3jqL

— Charlotte Kosche (@charlottekosche) February 2, 2017

The Old Gray Lady Promotes the Black Bloc: 'Anarchists Vow to Halt Far Right's Rise'

Following-up, "Only 'Antifas' Allowed 'Free Speech'."

I gotta say this is pretty fascinating. Anarchists and communists brawling with alleged brown shirts. It's like the 1930s, although let's hope not with the same results.

And the Old Gray Lady is playing it up. See, "Anarchists Respond to Trump’s Inauguration, by Any Means Necessary":

Anarchists Respond to Trump’s Inauguration, by Any Means Necessary https://t.co/mXhsPZVZLT

— NYTimes Once (@nytimes_once) February 3, 2017

Who Are the #Anarchists? And why are both Trump and the Democrats so afraid of them? #DisruptJ20 pic.twitter.com/TSI0lDdMB6

— submedia (@submedia) February 4, 2017

The videotaped sucker punch that staggered the white nationalist Richard Spencer on Inauguration Day quickly inspired mockery on social media. But it echoed loudly in an escalating confrontation between extreme ends of the political spectrum.

With far-right groups edging into the mainstream with the rise of President Trump, self-described anti-fascists and anarchists are vowing to confront them at every turn, and by any means necessary — including violence.

In Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday night, masked protesters set fires, smashed windows and stormed buildings on the campus of the University of California to shut down a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, an inflammatory Breitbart News editor and a right-wing provocateur already barred from Twitter. Five people were injured, administrators canceled the event, and the university police locked down the campus for hours.

That followed a bloody melee in Seattle on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, when black-clad demonstrators — their faces concealed to minimize the risk of arrest — tried to prevent a speech by Mr. Yiannopoulos at the University of Washington, and a 34-year-old anti-fascist was shot and seriously wounded by a supporter of Mr. Yiannopoulos.

The outbreaks of destruction and violence since Mr. Trump’s inauguration have earned contempt from Republicans — including Trump supporters who say it is exactly why they voted for his promises of law and order — and condemnation from Democrats like Berkeley’s mayor, Jesse Arreguín. He called Wednesday’s display “contrary to progressive values” and said it “provided the ultranationalist far right exactly the images they want” to try to discredit peaceful protesters of Mr. Trump’s policies.

But anarchists and anti-fascists, who often make up a small but disproportionately attention-getting portion of protesters, defend the mayhem they create as a necessary response to an emergency.

“Yes, what the black bloc did last night was destructive to property,” Eric Laursen, a writer in Massachusetts who has helped publicize anarchist protests, said, using another name for the black-clad demonstrators. “But do you just let someone like Milo go wherever he wants and spread his hate? That kind of argument can devolve into ‘just sit on your hands and wait for it to pass.’ And it doesn’t.”

Anarchists also say their recent efforts have been wildly successful, both by focusing attention on their most urgent argument — that Mr. Trump poses a fascist threat — and by enticing others to join their movement.

“The number of people who have been showing up to meetings, the number of meetings, and the number of already-evolving plans for future actions is through the roof,” Legba Carrefour, who helped organize the so-called Disrupt J20 protests on Inauguration Day in Washington, said in an interview.

“Gained 1,000 followers in the last week,” trumpeted @NYCAntifa, an anti-fascist Twitter account in New York, on Jan. 24. “Pretty crazy for us as we’ve been active for many years with minimal attention. SMASH FASCISM!”

The movement even claims to be finding adherents far afield of major population centers. A participant in CrimethInc, a decades-old anarchist network, pointed to rising attendance at its meetings and activity cropping up in new places like Omaha.

“The Left ignores us. The Right demonizes us,” the anarchist website It’s Going Down boasted on Twitter. “Everyday we grow stronger.”

Little known to practitioners of mainstream American politics, militant anti-fascists make up a secretive culture closely associated with anarchists. Both reject social hierarchies as undemocratic and eschew the political parties as hopelessly corrupt, according to interviews with a dozen anarchists around the country. While some anarchists espouse nonviolence, others view property damage and even physical attacks on the far right as important tactics...

I hate these people. Anarchists were among the leftist goons that attacked me in Anaheim, in 2014. See, "Cowardly #ANSWER Communists Violently Harass 'American Power' at Anaheim Police Brutality Protest!"

They will resort to violence to shut you down. I've confronted them numerous times, but if you're going to do it, you need to do it in numbers. I'm not going out to cover another one of these events unless I've got a posse with me.

Only 'Antifas' Allowed 'Free Speech'

I've been checking out the "Refuse Fascism" Twitter feed for a couple of weeks now. These people are the real fascists, and they're not shy about it.

According to the collective's editorialists, Milo Yiannopoulos has no free speech rights because "he spews forth hateful, crude, unthinking bigotry and low-level insults against marginalized and oppressed people, and he has a documented record of knowingly unleashing campaigns of harassment, stalking, and threats of violence." (Via Memeorandum.)

This is part of what people need now to strengthen #TheResistance: https://t.co/KjmysJRGdu Read&share. #NoBanNoWall #NoFascistUSA #MiloAtCal pic.twitter.com/raQBlp0tBb

— #NoFascistUSA (@RefuseFascism) February 4, 2017

All of this is false, of course. Even if his comments are "hateful," they're still protected by the First Amendment. Anyone with half a brain knows this (or anyone who wants to be taken seriously).

Indeed, even the far-left Los Angeles Times got it right the other day, when it defended Milo's right to speak at Berkeley. See, "The No Free Speech Movement at Berkeley":

A leaflet circulated at the Berkeley protest said Yiannopoulos has “no right to speak at Cal or anywhere else” because he’s a “tool of Trump’s possessive fascist government."

This is just the latest variation on the age-old argument of the censor that “error has no rights,” or, put another way, that one only has a right to free speech if one is speaking the “truth.” It’s an insidious notion that needs to be opposed in every generation.

Well, leftists don't want free speech. They don't want open debate and discussion, because they don't want their ideas exposed to critical examination (and repudiation). So, instead of engaging their opponents, they seek to destroy them. That's the textbook characteristic of fascism, hence the irony of "refuse fascism." For more on that, see Guy Benson, "Berkeley's 'Anti-Fascism' Protesters Embrace Fascism to Shut Down Free Speech."

@TheRealAmerica_ @Wild_Phil pic.twitter.com/rA7BnbkURE

— Myles Lefleure (@myleslefleure) February 4, 2017

We're in the midst of a political war. The Berkeley riot was just an advanced column of the left's forces of annihilation. The way to respond is with equal force, pushing back through vigorous law and order policies. (Governor Reagan sent in the National Guard at Berkeley in the 1960s. I expect we might be seeing a repeat of that kind of action in the current era, especially if the Trump administration decides to crack down.)

More at Right Wing News, "Who’s Funding the Liberal “Protests”?"

Hailey Clauson's Sizzling Return (VIDEO)

At Sports Illustrated:

Der Spiegel Cover Depict President Trump Beheading Lady Liberty

It really is going to be a long four years.

Man, I don't know if I can take leftist hysteria 24/7 for 48 months, sheesh.

Via Mashable "Powerful magazine covers depict America after Trump's immigration ban" (at Memeorandum).

America First. The new @DerSPIEGEL cover by @edelstudio. @SPIEGELONLINE @SPIEGEL_English pic.twitter.com/P2b5d4GgBy

— Klaus Brinkbäumer (@Brinkbaeumer) February 3, 2017

Milo Yiannopoulos, Dangerous

Milo was on Tucker Carlson's earlier. Watch, "Milo: Media legitimizes violence on conservatives":

Exclusive: Breitbart editor reflects on the riots that led to the cancellation of his speech at U.C. Berkeley, mainstream media creating environment for violence against conservatives, his new book, hate speech and more...

He's irresistible, actually.

Heh.

And his new book's sailing up the charts at Amazon, Dangerous, out March 14th.

Leftist Violence at Berkeley

Following-up from last night, "Masked Rioters Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos at U.C. Berkeley (VIDEO)."

Also from last night, at the Other McCain, "VIOLENT BERKELEY MOB RIOT SHUTS DOWN YIANNOPOULOS SPEECH."

And earlier today, from Joseph Paul Watson:

This is Trump's campaign ad for the 2020 election. Thanks Antifa, thanks leftists. pic.twitter.com/IT8Jbw4ZHS

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 2, 2017

Kate Moss for W Magazine

At London's Daily Mail, "Kate Moss, 43, goes completely naked for W magazine as she joins Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Chastain, Taraji P Henson and Donatella Versace."

And at W, "Kate Moss is Proudly Naked at 43 and Going Strong as Fashion's Reigning Muse."

Gorsuch Nomination Battle May Go Nuclear

Actually, I hope does.

Harry Reid opened the door to chucking the filibuster. Trump's likely to have another nomination this year or next, due to retirements on the Court. Throwing out the filibuster could move the Senate to a straight majoritarian chamber, better reflecting the will of the electorate. Now's the time to do it. The GOP could lock in a conservative majority on the Court for years, if not decades.

At the Los Angeles Times, from day before yesterday, "Democrats are ready to fight Trump's Supreme Court pick as the GOP-led Senate weighs 'nuclear option' on filibuster":

Democrats prepare to fight Trump's #SCOTUS pick as GOP-led Senate weighs #nuclearoption on #filibuster https://t.co/nenGfcw6ea

— Lisa Mascaro (@LisaMascaro) January 31, 2017

After Republicans blocked a string of President Obama’s judicial and executive nominees, frustrated Senate Democrats in 2013 used their majority to change long-standing filibuster rules and allow confirmations with a simple majority.

Now Republicans are considering the same “nuclear option” to confirm President Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court if Democrats mount a filibuster, as they appear poised to do.

So while Democrats sound alarms over Trump’s high court nomination and threaten to block it, their ability to actually stop him will be limited, thanks in part to their past willingness to change the filibuster rule when they held power.

Trump plans to announce Tuesday evening his choice for the seat made vacant last year by the death of conservative icon Justice Antonin Scalia.

Senate filibusters of Supreme Court nominees are rare, largely because the decision had been seen as too important to be bogged down in partisanship.

When President Johnson tried to elevate Justice Abe Fortas to the position of chief justice, senators filibustered in part over an ethics scandal that eventually forced Fortas to resign. In 2006, Democrats, including then-Sen. Barack Obama, tried to filibuster Samuel A. Alito Jr., but the effort fizzled and Alito was confirmed.

Trump has encouraged Republican senators to scrap the filibuster and quickly confirm his choice. “We have obstructionists,” Trump told Fox’s Sean Hannity last week. Asked whether he wants GOP leaders to change the rules for the high court, he said, “I do.”

Without a filibuster, Republicans have enough votes to confirm Trump’s pick, assuming the party is unified. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority.

But if a filibuster is allowed, they’d need Democrats to help reach the 60-vote threshold needed to defeat the tactic.

And Democrats are in no mood to cooperate with Trump. Many remain incensed that Republicans refused to consider President Obama’s choice of Judge Merrick Garland after Scalia’s death, leaving the court with only eight justices for nearly a year.

“This was a stolen seat; it’s not Trump’s to fill,” said one Senate Democratic aide granted anonymity to discuss the situation...

Heh.

It's not "stolen." Democrats are just poor losers. See, "The 'Stolen' Supreme Court Seat."

Plus, still more at the link.

The 'Stolen' Supreme Court Seat

Nobody "stole" anything.

Joe Biden advocated the same alleged changing of the "rules" back when he was chair of the Senate Judiciary committee in the 1990s. Both sides do it. It's just that Republicans gambled on a power-play last year and won a massive and decisive victory with Donald Trump's election. All leftists can do now is scream about "stolen" seats" and about how "Hillary won the popular vote."

God it's pathetic.

But we're in a new era. Democrats just can't stand that they now face a powerful Republican administration, and majority in Congress, that is willing and able to fight by the very rules leftists invented: Alinsky Rule #4, make the enemy live up to its own standards.

In any case, see the childish whiner David Leonhart, at the New York Times (where else?), "Why Democrats Should Oppose Neil Gorsuch":

Democrats cannot play by the old set of rules now that the Republicans are playing by a new one, writes @DLeonhardt https://t.co/gRhzTJQj9U

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) February 1, 2017

It’s important to remember just how radical — and, yes, unprecedented — the Senate’s approach to the previous Supreme Court nominee was.

Republican leaders announced last March that they would not consider any nominee. They did so even though Barack Obama still had 10 months left in his term and even though other justices (including Anthony Kennedy) had been confirmed in a president’s final year.

The refusal was a raw power grab. Coupled with Republican hints that no Hillary Clinton nominee would be confirmed either, it was a fundamental changing of the rules: Only a party that controlled both the White House and the Senate would now be able to assume it could fill a Supreme Court vacancy.

The change is terribly damaging for the country’s political system. It impedes the smooth functioning of the court and makes it a much more partisan institution.

Of course, the strategy also worked, and the flip from an Obama justice to a Trump justice will likely be the deciding factor in many of the most important cases in coming years.

So what can Democrats do?

First, they need to make sure that the stolen Supreme Court seat remains at the top of the public’s consciousness. When people hear the name “Neil Gorsuch,” as qualified as he may be, they should associate him with a constitutionally damaging power grab.

Second, Democrats should not weigh this nomination the same way that they’ve weighed previous ones. This one is different. The presumption should be that Gorsuch does not deserve confirmation, because the process that led to his nomination was illegitimate....

*****

Finally, the Democratic Party should begin planning its long-term strategy for the court, and that strategy needs to revolve around last year’s events. One option, for example, would be a plan first to deprive a Republican president of one nominee in coming years and second to offer a truce with Republicans.

I understand that all of these options sound aggressive and partisan, and it makes me deeply uncomfortable to make such an argument. But Democrats simply cannot play by the old set of rules now that the Republicans are playing by a new one. The only thing worse than the system that the Republicans have created is a system in which one political party volunteers to be bullied.

It doesn't make him "deeply uncomfortable." Frankly, by a look at his Twitter feed, the dude's reveling in his partisan hatred and demonization of the administration.

Fuck him.

America's New Opposition: The Left Has Been Reborn

Well, I suppose there's something to the argument of a renewed left --- it makes sense with the Democrats out of power, and especially so in the aftermath of Donald Trump's crushing (extinction-level) defeat of Hillary Clinton. The collective left has gone insane. Our political system is in a constant state of partisan siege. It only makes sense that the most angry seeds of the leftist revolt will be found in the bilge of the progressive fever swamps.

From Jedediah Purdy, at the New Republic, "America’s New Opposition":

Mainstream Democrats will continue to denounce anyone to their left as naïve. But they're wrong to do so: https://t.co/eMnwY64Pk6 pic.twitter.com/L7WTqnPRjQ

— New Republic (@NewRepublic) February 2, 2017

In late October 2011, I was volunteering at the Occupy Wall Street library in lower Manhattan. Tucked into a corner of Zuccotti Park, the library was staffed mainly by anarchists of an exceedingly orderly bent. If society were suddenly freed from coercive institutions like libraries, these people would gladly spend the morning sorting donated books by Dewey decimal number—as they were doing in the mild fall weather. I was there for only a few days, but one conversation with a book borrower has stayed with me. He was having trouble understanding why he kept returning to the encampment. He wondered: Had anything like this happened before? Were there books that could tell him who had done it, and why? I felt I was meeting a victim of a political shipwreck. In my mind, he became emblematic of a left that felt itself so unmoored from any shared past that it was puzzled by its own existence.

Now that Donald Trump occupies the White House, it’s easy to feel that we are all castaways in historical time. There is talk in some quarters of leaving the country, of turning blue cities and states into sanctuaries, not just for the undocumented, but for disillusioned liberals—a response that amounts to giving up on creating a just and inclusive democracy in this divided land. But such feelings of despair miss the deeper and perhaps more lasting political transformation that has taken place in the five years since Zuccotti Park.

Indeed, the irruption of radicalism at Occupy turned out to be prophetic. For the first time in decades, the left regained its focus and put down new roots. Fight for $15, the campaign for a higher minimum wage led by fast-food workers, made gains in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. Rolling Jubilee, founded in 2012, bought and canceled almost $32 million in medical and student debt. Black Lives Matter has forced America to reckon with police violence against black men and highlighted the economic isolation of many black communities. Last year, Bernie Sanders won more than 13 million votes. And recent polls show that a majority of Americans under the age of 30 now prefer socialism to capitalism. While it is unclear just what they mean by that, a renewed openness to radical ideas is unmistakable among young people. The mass protests in response to Trump’s policies, both at the women’s march and at airports around the country, in the last weeks show a sense of urgency and willingness to fight for robust legal equality and inclusiveness. At the very moment when establishment politics have been severely undermined—the GOP hijacked by Trump, the Democrats confounded by Hillary Clinton’s loss—the American left has been reborn.

For most of the 2016 election cycle, however, the left was told, implicitly or explicitly, that while they might be charming or admirable, they should leave real politics to the adults of the Democratic National Committee and the liberal commentariat. There was one candidate, we were assured, and one web of institutions and experts who understood how to get things done: They were battle-tested and ready to win, then to hit the ground governing. The rest of us had pretty sentiments; it was sweet that we thought the word democracy could refer to something larger in ambition and imagination than the current version of the Democratic Party; but politics means putting away childish things.

In the wake of Trump’s victory in November, the present leadership of the Democratic Party has failed to grasp the lessons of its own defeat. “I don’t think people want a new direction,” Nancy Pelosi insisted on Meet the Press just after the election. The DNC doubled down on that position in early January, announcing the creation of an anti-Trump “war room” staffed with Clinton operatives who will continue attacking Trump’s ethics, character, and speculative ties to Russia. This is the same strategy that failed to win the presidential election against a palpably flawed and eminently beatable candidate.

Though fragmented and incipient, this nascent left is now best placed to mount a convincing opposition to Trump, and to engage with the forces that brought him to power. With its focus on economic inequality and collective action, the left knows things that liberals have been reluctant to acknowledge, or in any event to say—knowledge that is necessary to embrace the populist moment, push back on its reactionary inclinations, and seize its progressive potential. The left is able to diagnose the malfunctioning of our democracy because, unlike the Democratic establishment, it starts from the premise that American democracy as it is currently constituted is profoundly insufficient...

An interesting, although profoundly mistaken analysis. Hillary Clinton ran far to the left, much farther than her 2008 campaign, and farther left than both of Barack Obama's campaigns.

The Democrats lost not just because Crooked Hillary was a disaster waiting to happen, it's simply that the electorate repudiated leftism. What we're seeing now, all across the board, especially with the increasing violence, is going to help the Republicans. For all of Donald Trump's flaws, and he's got many, he keeps winning. And it's so early. I do think we're in for perpetual outrage and the concomitant never-ending street protests. In the end what will matter is good governance. Democrats are making massive gambles at this very minute with literally unhinged obstructionism. The voters will see more of the same and punish the "establishment," which is best represented now by the progressive-collectivist elite.

But continue reading.

Masked Rioters Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos at U.C. Berkeley (VIDEO)

Here's Milo's statement on Facebook, "I was just evacuated from UC Berkeley (VIDEO)."

This is perhaps the most violent protest against the man yet. Clearly leftists are even more enraged now that the "alt-right" has a sympathetic ear in the White House.

And at Fox News, and on Twitter below.

There's a major black bloc element out there. These folks are not going to tolerate a difference of opinion. No wonder Yiannopoulos was evacuated. We're on the precipice of civil war. And the initial violent skirmishes are already breaking out on America's campuses.

The state of higher education in the age of Trump. #Berkeley pic.twitter.com/VrBZnYNcFD

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

Police amassing on ground floor of Berkeley student union. Things could get...real. pic.twitter.com/p128zX7IT8

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

Milo wasn't welcome in Berkeley. pic.twitter.com/3KUMorC0zL

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

Trump presidency, day 13. #berkeley pic.twitter.com/A9MCOqWq6E

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

The graffiti on the destroyed generator says "Fuck Trump." pic.twitter.com/x9E5OVtdtt

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

People taking photos in front of defaced Walgreens on Telegraph Avenue. pic.twitter.com/3IO3xsJgkE

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

Berkeley protests. pic.twitter.com/oVLI9NHo3A

— Alexander Nazaryan (@alexnazaryan) February 2, 2017

UC Berkeley looks like a war zone right now thanks to violent protesters furious over #MiloYiannopoulos speech https://t.co/NUTF1NFfy0 pic.twitter.com/tQSYtcQUfL

— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) February 2, 2017

#BREAKING: Protest continues with the burning of a #MAGA hat & "fuck Donald Trump" chants #UCBerkeley pic.twitter.com/XrT1fm4pX1

— Kris Cruz (@rc_kris) February 2, 2017

Protesters migrating to Bancroft Way. Preparing to march. #UCBerkeley #MiloYiannopoulos pic.twitter.com/cJT86j7DX8

— Lilian Kim (@liliankim7) February 2, 2017

Police threaten use of batons, chemical agents for UC Berkeley protest: https://t.co/zaKBMCXz4X #MiloAtCal

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) February 2, 2017

#UCBerkeley responds after violent #protest forces cancelation of #MiloYiannopoulos speech: https://t.co/bYIzUvYuLN pic.twitter.com/WK2CpMhUu1

— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) February 2, 2017

Proudly intolerant of genocide. Intolerant of a fascist government. Intolerant of #alternativefacts. #onevictory #MiloAtCal #NOFASCISTUSA pic.twitter.com/zx04LYKQzY

— #NoFascistUSA (@RefuseFascism) February 2, 2017

Trump Administration's Religious Freedom Executive Order

The hits keep coming for leftists, and the freak-out index keeps dialing up.

It turns out the administration's forthcoming executive order on religious freedom's been leaked, and far-left outlets are in meltdown mode.

At Newsweek, "LGBT Groups Brace for Trump Religious Freedom Executive Order."

At at the Nation, "Leaked Draft of Trump’s Religious Freedom Order Reveals Sweeping Plans to Legalize Discrimination":

Lefty groups are freaking out about the draft of Trump's religious liberty EO. It's good policy. He should issue it. https://t.co/Y1ICL3Ansz

— Ryan T. Anderson (@RyanTAnd) February 2, 2017

If signed, the order would create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity.

leaked copy of a draft executive order titled “Establishing a Government-Wide Initiative to Respect Religious Freedom,” obtained by The Investigative Fund and The Nation, reveals sweeping plans by the Trump administration to legalize discrimination.

The four-page draft order, a copy of which is currently circulating among federal staff and advocacy organizations, construes religious organizations so broadly that it covers “any organization, including closely held for-profit corporations,” and protects “religious freedom” in every walk of life: “when providing social services, education, or healthcare; earning a living, seeking a job, or employing others; receiving government grants or contracts; or otherwise participating in the marketplace, the public square, or interfacing with Federal, State or local governments.”

The draft order seeks to create wholesale exemptions for people and organizations who claim religious or moral objections to same-sex marriage, premarital sex, abortion, and trans identity, and it seeks to curtail women’s access to contraception and abortion through the Affordable Care Act. The White House did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked Monday about whether a religious freedom executive order was in the works, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, “I’m not getting ahead of the executive orders that we may or may not issue. There is a lot of executive orders, a lot of things that the president has talked about and will continue to fulfill, but we have nothing on that front now.”

Language in the draft document specifically protects the tax-exempt status of any organization that “believes, speaks, or acts (or declines to act) in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception and merits protection at all stages of life.”

 The breadth of the draft order, which legal experts described as “sweeping” and “staggering,” may exceed the authority of the executive branch if enacted. It also, by extending some of its protections to one particular set of religious beliefs, would risk violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“This executive order would appear to require agencies to provide extensive exemptions from a staggering number of federal laws—without regard to whether such laws substantially burden religious exercise,” said Marty Lederman, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and an expert on church-state separation and religious freedom.

The exemptions, Lederman said, could themselves violate federal law or license individuals and private parties to violate federal law. “Moreover,” he added, “the exemptions would raise serious First Amendment questions, as well, because they would go far beyond what the Supreme Court has identified as the limits of permissive religious accommodations.” It would be “astonishing,” he said, “if the Office of Legal Counsel certifies the legality of this blunderbuss order.”

The leaked draft maintains that, as a matter of policy, “Americans and their religious organizations will not be coerced by the Federal Government into participating in activities that violate their conscience.”

It sets forth an exceptionally expansive definition of “religious exercise” that extends to “any act or refusal to act that is motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not the act is required or compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief.” “It’s very sweeping,” said Ira Lupu, a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School and an expert on the Constitution’s religion clauses and on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). “It raises a big question about whether the Constitution or the RFRA authorizes the president to grant religious freedom in such a broad way.”

In particular, said Lupu, the draft order “privileges” a certain set of beliefs about sexual orientation and gender identity—beliefs identified most closely with conservative Catholics and evangelical Christians—over others. That, he said, goes beyond “what RFRA might authorize” and may violate the Establishment Clause.

Lupu added that the language of the draft “might invite federal employees,” for example, at the Social Security Administration or Veterans Administration, “to refuse on religious grounds to process applications or respond to questions from those whose benefits depend on same sex marriages.” If other employees do not “fill the gap,” he said, it could “lead to a situation where marriage equality was being de facto undermined by federal employees, especially in religiously conservative communities,” contrary to Supreme Court rulings...

Still more.

Mya Dalbesio Will Blow You Away (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "'It took a while for Sports Illustrated to fully convert from exclusive Muhammed Ali cover stories to foreign lingerie models barely covered in Costa Rican hooker thongs...'"

It's true. I do believe SI's fully embraced its full-on porn identity.

At Theo's, "Mya Dalbesio Will Blow You Away With Her Debut - Intimates - Sports Illustrated Swimsuit."

New Claudia Romani Bikini Pics in Miami

She's amazing.

At London's Daily Mail, "Bottoms up! Model Claudia Romani showcases her perky posterior in barely there bikini bottoms as she soaks up the sun in Miami."

'Never Trumpers' Boarding the #TrumpTrain?

I tweeted last night:

I've argued all along that most #NEVERTRUMPERS are closet leftists. They need to join the #TrumpTrain now or retire. https://t.co/DH9NasGXMZ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) February 1, 2017

And today at the Conservative Treehouse, "Sorry #NeverTrumpers but You Don’t Get to Dismount Your High Horse Today…":

Sorry #NeverTrumpers But You Don’t Get To Dismount Your High Horse Today… https://t.co/AyBp2CmNVR pic.twitter.com/0jtXhAcyJB

— TheLastRefuge (@TheLastRefuge2) February 1, 2017

Sorry #NeverTrumpers, but you don”t get to dismount your high horse and celebrate the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch today.  This is NOT your victory, this is ours!

There is a gobsmacking level of pontificating self-righteousness visible from the collective proletariat within your crony-conservative movement who made the decision to formulate their political argument from a position of opposition.

Perhaps it would be different if you framed your antagonism from a position of advocacy, but that wasn’t the direction you chose.  No, you chose a specific position of opposition as clearly evident within your chosen mantra “Never Trump”.

Perhaps it would be different if you ever had a come-to-Jesus moment and apologized immediately following the November election.  Then again, when your opinion of your own self-importance is this high, those humble words are just as foreign as your understanding of the movement that won.

You don’t get to frame the entire construct of your argument around opposition to a team, and then claim benefit to the outcome of victory.  Stay on your high-horse, move along and ride off into that proverbial land of irrelevance; you’re dead here.

Save your dismount for another defining “conservative” assembly where you can gather at CPAC again and give a standing ovation to House Speaker Paul Ryan a month after he eliminates the debt ceiling and passes a $2 trillion OmniBus spending bill, funding all of the progressive priorities you hypocritically claim to oppose; you’re good at that.

That particular circle of crazy just doesn’t sell here any longer.

Save up your fiscal hypocrisy, you’ll need it.  Because in less than two months our victorious bastard will deliver a budget that cuts a trillion “per year” out of the federal coffers…. and there is no doubt the beneficiary of your prior applause will be counting on your fiscally conservative sensibilities to protest for more spending on his behalf.

Oh, and keep your newest VAT tax construct.  We’ll bring the sledgehammer, save your gilded and monogrammed tweezers for a swamp audience stupid enough to believe it – Thank you.

Oh, and don’t go getting all pearl-clutchy.  This isn’t anger directed toward you, this is far, far worse.  This is a very targeted and deliberate Cold Anger surrounding you and the swamp creatures of your affiliation. This sensibility never forgets.

You had a choice. You chose a direction, you lost; and you damn near lost the entire friggin’ country.  Just because the team you ridiculed and attacked has overcome all opposition and gained victory, that doesn’t mean you get to backtrack now and expect the bruised and bloodied recipients to forget those who launched the stones and arrows.

Save your wine-spritzers and crust-less triangle sandwiches. We didn’t have well financed high-horses, we launched boots, well-worn boots, scratched, clawed and advanced despite your hoighty-toighty principles, intransigence and unwillingness to cuss or get your hands dirty.

Good grief, your insufferable sensibilities were frightened of frog memes, FROG MEMES!

It was our deplorable and calloused hands that volunteered, opened our piggy banks, and held firm to support each other and our vulgarian candidate against all opposition.  You were part of that opposition...

Actually, Mary Katharine Ham did apologize, but not anyone else that I know of.

Filibuster of Gorsuch Could Doom Senate Democrats in 2018 Midterm Elections

Well, Senate Democrats aren't doing anyone any favors right now. It's all chickens with their heads cut off. And it ain't pretty.

At the Other McCain, "Trump Nominates ‘Worthy’ Judge; Democrats Go Into Full-On Panic Mode":

Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review calls Neil Gorsuch a “worthy” appointee to the Supreme Court, “a well-respected conservative whose legal philosophy is remarkably similar to that of Antonin Scalia, the justice he will replace if the Senate confirms him.”

The “if” in that sentence expresses a contingency that is difficult to estimate at this point. Democrats are still butt-hurt because when Scalia died in an election year, the Republican majority in the Senate refused to take action on Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland for the vacant seat. Whatever one may think of that controversy, that was last year’s fight and Republicans won it — not only was Donald Trump elected president, but the Garland nomination didn’t hurt the GOP in Senate elections last fall, either. We might therefore conclude that the people ratified the Republican opposition to Obama’s SCOTUS nominee. Yet the Democrats in the Senate evidently don’t recognize the legitimacy of either the Trump presidency or the GOP Senate majority. Many vowed to invoke the filibuster against Trump’s court nominee, even before it was known who the president would nominate...

Yeah, well, like I said, it ain't pretty.

But it's the Democrats we're talking about here. They definitely have not recovered from the November 8th beating. It's going to be a long four years. Long and pretty much hilarious.

Still more.