DUH ... THE DRIVE BY MEDIA KNOWS NO LIMITS!

NORTH KOREAN CALLING CARD ... GOTTA GET THE FAT BOY'S ATTENTION

North Korea Launches Satellite to Space February 8, 2016 ... WHAT WOULD THE LITTLE FAT BOY DO IF THE US WENT INTO SPACE AND PICKED UP NORTH KOREA'S RECENT SATELLITE AND RETURNED IT TO HIM?  WOULD THAT BE SO UNTHINKABLE ... NOT REALLY ... BUT IT WOULD GET HIS UNDIVIDED ATTENTION!  THE X-37 B MOST LIKELY COULD PULL OFF THE TASK!

This satellite image from Nov. 26, 2012 shows a marked increase in activity at North Korea's Sohae (West Sea) Satellite Launch Station, which hosted a rocket launch on Feb. 6, 2016.Credit: DigitalGlobe via Getty Images
North Korea has apparently launched a satellite to orbit, in a move that the United States and other nations quickly condemned as an attempt to further develop a prohibited long-range missile capability.

• The liftoff occurred from the Sohae launch facility in western North Korea at 7:29 p.m. EST Saturday (Feb. 6; 0029 GMT and 8:59 a.m. local North Korean time on Sunday, Feb. 7), according to a media advisory from the United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

"The missile was tracked on a southerly launch over the Yellow Sea. NORAD determined that at no time was the missile a threat to North America," the USSTRATCOM advisory read, referring to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint effort of the United States and Canada. [Images: North Korea's Rocket Program]

North Korea has launched several rockets and missiles as part of budding space program. Here's how North Korea's Unha-3 rocket works.Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Contributor

North Korean officials claimed the launch succeeded in putting an Earth-observation satellite called Kwangmyongsong-4 into orbit. USSTRATCOM officials told CNN that at least two new space objects were detected after the liftoff; these are likely the satellite and the rocket's first stage, an expert told CNN.

Officials in the United States, Japan, South Korea and a number of other nations, however, viewed the launch as primarily cover for the testing of military missile technology. North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, and experts believe the secretive, unpredictable nation is working to develop the means to deliver them great distances.

Pyongyang has certainly voiced a desire to use nuclear weapons against its perceived adversaries. In 2013, for example, North Korean officials — apparently angered by United Nations sanctions and joint U.S./South Korean military exercises — said they would turn Washington, D.C. and other major American cities into "seas of fire."

Saturday's launch came just one month after North Korea (which is also known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK) conducted an apparent nuclear test. Pyongyang claimed the Jan. 6 test involved a hydrogen bomb, but outside experts said it instead probably detonated a less-powerful fission weapon, which North Korea has tested multiple times in the past.

UN Security Council resolutions prohibit North Korea from conducting ballistic-missile and nuclear-weapons tests. So Saturday's liftoff elicited nearly immediate condemnation from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other nations.

"This is the second time in just over a month that the DPRK has chosen to conduct a major provocation, threatening not only the security of the Korean peninsula, but that of the region and the United States as well," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statementSaturday.

"We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to the defense of our allies, including the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and Japan," Kerry added. "We will continue to work with our partners and members of the UN Security Council on significant measures to hold the DPRK to account."

North Korea has now conducted four known nuclear tests, as well as a number of long-range missile/rocket launches. Attempts to loft satellites in 1998, 2009, and April 2012 failed, while a December 2012 launch apparently did place an object in orbit (though it's unclear if that object is actually doing anything as it zips around Earth).

THE ART OF THE DEAL ...

Can child marriage be stopped? One girl did and wants others in Indonesia to follow ... parental slavery if you're a female ... so what's the difference between social/traditional slavery and freedom to live life to your fullest ... the art of the deal! "You go girl!" HERE IN THE USA WE HAVE A STAMPEDE ON TRANNIES AND GENDER REASSIGNMENT ... 
by Beh Lih Yi | @BehLihYi | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tuesday, 29 August 2017 08:57 GMT

ABOUT OUR WOMEN'S RIGHTS COVERAGE We focus on stories that help to empower women and bring lasting change to gender inequality

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One in four girls marry before they turn 18 in Indonesia

By Beh Lih Yi

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In Sanita Rini's village on the Indonesian island of Java, child brides were so common that girls who were not married by the time they turned 16 were labelled "old virgins".

Like other parents in the village, Rini's tried to marry her off - to a motorbike driver seven years her senior - as soon as she celebrated her 13th birthday.

"I was shocked. I cried, I was angry," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"I knew from my friends who married young, they can't continue school, their life is over," said Rini, now 22.

Rini's story is not uncommon in Indonesia, which is among the top 10 countries in the world with the highest number of child brides, according to campaign group Girls Not Brides.

But she stopped her child marriage and now, along with a group of teenage girls, Rini is seeking to empower others to fight back through a new network, the Youth Coalition for Girls.

• One in four girls marry before they turn 18 in Indonesia, according to the United Nations' children agency UNICEF. On average over 3,500 Indonesian girls are married off every day.

Globally, 15 million girls become child brides each year, exposing them to greater risks of exploitation, sexual violence, domestic abuse and death in childbirth.

Campaigners say poverty and tradition continue to drive underage marriage in Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago in Southeast Asia with a population of 250 million people.

STRIKING A 'DEAL'

The U.N. defines child marriage as a formal marriage or informal union before age 18. However in Indonesia, the minimum age a girl can wed is 16, and 19 for boys.

Rini said her father, a construction labour, and mother, who runs a grocery store from home, tried for two years to marry her to the man from her village to help the family's finances.

The youngest of five siblings, Rini resisted and her parents eventually dropped the idea after she struck a "deal" with them.

• "I asked my parents how much they have spent on me, for my education. I said I would repay them this money if they let me continue my studies. If they forced me to get married, they would not get a single cent," she said.

The coalition hopes stories like Rini's can inspire other girls to stand up for their rights on issues ranging from child marriage to sexual violence.

Launched in March, the group now has 180 members aged between 15 and 24 in 11 provinces across the archipelago who want to tackle gender equality through talks and book projects.

The coalition has a few survivors of child marriage and Rini, the group's deputy head, said sharing their experiences help girls who are trapped to envision a different future. "I want to tell the girls, they are not alone. They have the power to say no," she said.

THE DOWNSLIDE OF LETTING THIS HAPPEN IN EUROPE ...

The coalition also reaches out to parents to tell them the importance of education and encourage them to let their children continue their studies until at they are at least 18.

A university graduate, Rini has spoken about her experience in Japan and the Netherlands and her parents are proud of her.

The new coalition comes as women's rights campaigners in Indonesia broaden their movement by engaging men and religious leaders.

• In April, female Muslim clerics issued an unprecedented fatwa - a religious edict which is not legally binding but influential among Muslims - to declare underage marriage harmful and said its prevention was mandatory.

Rini admits the network is only in its infancy, but she hopes by taking this step, politicians will start engaging youths themselves when drafting policies and enacting laws.

"My dream is to see boys and girls in Indonesia enjoy their rights equally," she said.

(Reporting by Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. 

Visit http://news.trust.org)

ROME BUILT HADRIAN'S WALL, CHINA BUILT THE GREAT WALL, SOVIET UNION BUILT THE BERLIN WALL ...SO WHY CAN'T MEXICO BUILD A WALL?

Nooooo ... Trump will build the Wall and have Mexico pay for it ... and he will protect the Mexican Farmers by scrapping NAFTA ...
President Trump on Monday said the U.S. may need to pay upfront for his promised border wall because Mexico is "reluctant" to foot the bill for the billion-dollar barrier.

• "One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the wall. It may be through reimbursement, but one way or the other Mexico will pay," Trump told reporters at a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.

"We need the wall, it's imperative," he continued. "We may fund it through the United States, but ultimately Mexico will pay for the wall."

 

Moments earlier, the president stood by his previous threat to shut down the federal government unless Congress provides funding for the Southern border wall when lawmakers return from recess next month and turn their attention to spending legislation. A House-passed bill containing $1.6 billion in border security funding has already drawn criticism from key GOP senators who oppose the president's request.

Despite being a central pillar of his presidency, Trump has repeated refused to articulate how his administration plans to get America's Southern neighbor to cover the cost of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump said Monday that his administration already faces an uphill battle in trying renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, admitting that the U.S. will "probably have to at least start the termination process" before a fair deal can be brokered.

"We will either terminate or renegotiate it," he said, before turning to his Finnish counterpart to add that his country "would never have signed NAFTA" even though Finland is not located in North America.

MEXICAN FARMER PROTESTING AGAINST NAFTA

The president's comments come hours after the Mexican government issued a statement repudiating Trump's claim that it will pay for his border wall.

• "As the Mexican government has always stated, our country will not pay, under any circumstances, for a wall or physical barrier built on U.S. territory along the Mexican border," read a statement Monday from Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a jab at Trump's frequent use of Twitter to conduct diplomatic matters, Mexican officials also said they "will not negotiate NAFTA nor any other aspect of the bilateral relationship, through social media or any news platform."

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT LISTEN TO THE EVENING NEWS AND OTHER TALKING HEADS

THE TALKING HEADS FROM THE SHALLOW END OF THE GENE POOL ... HAVE REACHED THEIR COMBINED GENETIC POTENTIAL, SO I DON'T LISTEN RATHER I SEARCH FOR NEWS AND USE CRITICAL THINKING.

I'M PRESIDENT AND YOU'RE NOT! GET OVER IT!

ACHIEVING YOUR GENETIC POTENITAL ... IN SPLC TIME MACHINE ... GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

J.P. Morgan’s Hate List ...
What is its gift to the Southern Poverty Law Center telling bank customers?

Corporate America will do almost anything to stay on the safe side of public opinion—at least as it’s defined by the media. CEOs will apologize, grovel, resign, settle. They will even, as of this month, legitimize and fund an outfit that exists to smear conservatives.

The press is still obsessing over President Trump’s incompetent handling of the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and that has suited some profiteers just fine. The notorious Southern Poverty Law Center is quietly cashing in on the tragedy, raking in millions on its spun-up reputation as a group that “fights hate.” Apple CEO Tim Cook informed employees that his company is giving $1 million to SPLC and matching employee donations. J.P. Morgan Chaseis pitching in $500,000, specifically to further the SPLC’s “work in tracking, exposing and fighting hate groups and other extremist organizations,” in the words of Peter Scher, the bank’s head of corporate responsibility.
What Mr. Scher is referring to is the SPLC’s “Hate Map,” its online list of 917 American “hate groups.” The SPLC alone decides who goes on the list, but its criteria are purposely vague. Since the SPLC is a far-left activist group, the map comes down to this: If the SPLC doesn’t agree with your views, it tags you as a hater.

Let’s not mince words: By funding this list, J.P. Morgan and Apple are saying they support labeling Christian organizations that oppose gay marriage as “hate groups.” That may come as a sour revelation to any bank customers who have donated to the Family Research Council (a mainstream Christian outfit on the SPLC’s list) or whose rights are protected by the Alliance Defending Freedom (which litigates for religious freedom and is also on the list).

Similarly put out may be iPhone owners who support the antiterror policies espoused by Frank Gaffney’s Washington think tank, the Center for Security Policy (on the SPLC’s list). Or any who back the proposals of the Center for Immigration Studies (on the list).

These corporations are presumably in favor of the SPLC’s practice of calling its political opponents “extremists,” which paints targets on their backs. The group’s “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” lists Mr. Gaffney (who worked for the Reagan administration); Maajid Nawaz (a British activist whose crimes include tweeting a cartoon of Jesus and Muhammad ); and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a Somali refugee who speaks out against Islamic extremism).
 
The SPLC has tarred the respected social scientist Charles Murray, author of the well-regarded book “Losing Ground,” as a “white nationalist.” Mr. Murray has been physically assaulted on campus as a result. He happens to be married to an Asian woman and has Asian daughters, so the slur is ludicrous. But what’s a little smearing and career destruction if J.P. Morgan Chase gets some good headlines?

It isn’t only the lists. An honest outfit tracking violent groups would keep to straightforward descriptions and facts. Instead, the SPLC’s descriptions of people are brutally partisan, full of half-truths and vitriol designed to inspire fury.

We’ve seen what this kind of fury can do in Europe, with the murder of Theo Van Gogh, the controversial filmmaker, by a Dutch-Moroccan Islamic fanatic. Ms. Hirsi Ali, who had worked with Van Gogh, still travels with security—and J.P. Morgan thinks it appropriate to further target her? In 2012 a gay-marriage supporter named Floyd Corkins smashed into the Family Research Council’s headquarters and shot a security guard. He told police he was inspired by the SPLC’s “hate group” designation.

Had the companies done a bit of homework, they’d have discovered the SPLC isn’t even considered a sound charity. Karl Zinsmeister excoriated the outfit in a recent article for Philanthropy Roundtable: “Its two largest expenses are propaganda operations: creating its annual list of ‘haters’ and ‘extremists,’ and running a big effort that pushes ‘tolerance education’ through more than 400,000 public-school teachers. And the single biggest effort undertaken by the SPLC? Fundraising. On the organization’s 2015 IRS 990 form it declared $10 million of direct fundraising expenses, far more than it has ever spent on legal services.”

Apple did not return a call to its media center. J.P. Morgan Chase, in an emailed statement, said only that it has a “long history of supporting a range of organizations that are committed to addressing inequality.”

The corporate donations are nonetheless appalling, as they legitimize a group that already exercises inappropriate influence. The SPLC’s list is cited regularly by the media and congressional Democrats, ignorant or uncaring of its falsehoods. The charity tracker GuideStar for a time attached warning labels to philanthropies flagged by the SPLC.

This undermines the fight against truly hateful groups. Comparing pro bono lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom to hood-wearing KKK members only make the Klan seem more innocuous. Blackballing mainstream groups only silences the moderate voices the country needs to fight hate and bigotry.

Corporations have a role to play in calming today’s divisions. This is the opposite.

Write to kim@wsj.com.

BASKET OF DEPLORABLES OR BASKET OF DISPICABLES ... NEITHER BASKET OF PATRIOTS IS WHAT TRULY UNITES US!

What Still Unites Us?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

Decades ago, a debate over what kind of nation America is roiled the conservative movement.

Neocons claimed America was an “ideological nation” a “creedal nation,” dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Expropriating the biblical mandate, “Go forth and teach all nations!” they divinized democracy and made the conversion of mankind to the democratic faith their mission here on earth.

With his global crusade for democracy, George W. Bush bought into all this. Result: Ashes in our mouths and a series of foreign policy disasters, beginning with Afghanistan and Iraq. 

• Behind the Trumpian slogan “America First” lay a conviction that, with the Cold War over and the real ideological nation, the USSR, shattered into pieces along ethnic lines, it was time for America to come home.

Contra the neocons, traditionalists argued that, while America was uniquely great, the nation was united by faith, culture, language, history, heroes, holidays, mores, manners, customs and traditions. A common feature of Americans, black and white, was pride in belonging to a people that had achieved so much.

The insight attributed to Alexis de Tocqueville — “America is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good, she will cease to be great” — was a belief shared by almost all.

What makes our future appear problematic is that what once united us now divides us. While Presidents Wilson and Truman declared us to be a “Christian nation,” Christianity has been purged from our public life and sheds believers every decade. Atheism and agnosticism are growing rapidly, especially among the young.

Traditional morality, grounded in Christianity, is being discarded. Half of all marriages end in divorce. Four-in-10 children are born out of wedlock. Unrestricted abortion and same-sex marriage — once regarded as marks of decadence and decline — are now seen as human rights and the hallmarks of social progress.

Have something to say about this column?
Visit Pat's FaceBook page and post your comments….

Tens of millions of us do not speak English. Where most of our music used to be classic, popular, country and western, and jazz, much of it now contains rutting lyrics that used to be unprintable.

Where we used to have three national networks, we have three 24-hour cable news channels and a thousand websites that reinforce our clashing beliefs on morality, culture, politics and race.

Consider but a few events post-Charlottesville.

“Murderer” was painted on the San Fernando statue of Fr. Junipero Serra, the Franciscan who founded the missions that became San Diego, San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano and Santa Clara.

America’s oldest monument honoring Columbus, in Baltimore, was vandalized. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia called for Robert E. Lee’s statue to be removed from Capitol and replaced by — Pocahontas.

According to legend, this daughter of Chief Powhatan saved Captain John Smith from being beheaded by throwing herself across his neck. The Chief was a “person of interest” in the disappearance of the “Lost Colony” of Roanoke Island, among whose missing was Virginia Dare, the first European baby born in British America.

Why did Kaine not call for John Smith himself, leader of the Jamestown Colony that fought off Indian attacks, to be so honored?

In New Orleans, “Tear It Down” was spray-painted on a statue of Joan of Arc, a gift from France in 1972. Besides being a canonized saint in the Catholic Church and a legendary heroine of France, what did the Maid of Orleans do to deserve this?

Taken together, we are seeing the discoverers, explorers and missionaries of North America demonized as genocidal racists all. The Founding Fathers are either slave owners or sanctioners of slavery.

Our nation-builders either collaborated in or condoned the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans. Almost to the present, ours was a land where segregationists were honored leaders.

Bottom line for the left: Americans should be sickened and ashamed of the history that made us the world’s greatest nation. And we should acknowledge our ancestors’ guilt by tearing down any and all monuments and statues that memorialize them.

This rising segment of America, full of self-righteous rage, is determined to blacken the memory of those who have gone before us.

To another slice of America, much of the celebrated social and moral “progress” of recent decades induces a sense of nausea, summarized in the lament, “This isn’t the country we grew up in.”

Hillary Clinton famously described this segment of America as a “basket of deplorables … racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic … bigots,” and altogether “irredeemable.”

So, what still unites us? What holds us together into the indefinite future? What makes us one nation and one people? What do we offer mankind, as nations seem to recoil from what we are becoming, and are instead eager to build their futures on the basis of ethnonationalism and fundamentalist faith?

If advanced democracy has produced the disintegration of a nation that we see around us, what is the compelling case for it?

A sixth of the way through the 21st century, what is there to make us believe this will be the Second American Century?

A BOX OF ROCKS HAS MORE COMMON SENSE THAT THIS WACK-O

Nancy Pelosi's father helped dedicate Confederate monument ... 
By Brooke Singman Published August 24, 2017

At left, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi; at right, the Lee-Jackson monument in Baltimore, Md. (Reuters)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has ramped up calls to remove "reprehensible" Confederate statues from the halls of Congress -- but left unsaid in her public denunciations is that her father helped dedicate such a statue decades ago while mayor of Baltimore.

It was May 2, 1948, when, according to a Baltimore Sun article from that day, “3,000” looked on as then-Governor William Preston Lane Jr. and Pelosi’s father, the late Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., spoke at the dedication of a monument to honor Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.

The article said Lane delivered a speech, and Mayor D’Alesandro “accepted” the memorial.

“Today, with our nation beset by subversive groups and propaganda which seeks to destroy our national unity, we can look for inspiration to the lives of Lee and Jackson to remind us to be resolute and determined in preserving our sacred institutions,” D’Alesandro said in his dedication. “We must remain steadfast in our determination to preserve freedom, not only for ourselves, but for the other liberty-loving nations who are striving to preserve their national unity as free nations.”
He added: “In these days of uncertainty and turmoil, Americans must emulate Jackson’s example and stand like a stone wall against aggression in any form that would seek to destroy the liberty of the world.”

With President Trump cautioning that the drive to purge Confederate statues could represent a slippery slope, the White House has flagged Pelosi's family history as she fuels the statue opposition.

Counselor Kellyanne Conway tweeted an earlier article from RedAlertPolitics noting Pelosi's father's role.

"That's rich," she wrote.
 
CONFEDERATE STATUE FUROR HITS CAPITOL HILL AS PELOSI AND OTHERS SEEK REMOVAL

Last week, more than a half century after Pelosi’s father honored the Lee-Jackson monument, it was removed from its post along with three other Confederate statues in Baltimore, according to the Baltimore Sun. The removal came as numerous monuments were removed, vandalized or otherwise being debated in the wake of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where a counter-protester was killed.

 ... yup and Pelosi, Waters and Finestein come in a close second.

Pelosi’s office did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on her father’s involvement with one of the Baltimore monuments.

But Pelosi, D-Calif., has been outspoken in fueling the backlash toward symbols of the Confederacy. Last week, she urged House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to remove the 10 Confederate statues memorialized on Capitol Hill “immediately” if “Republicans are serious about rejecting white supremacy.”

When asked why Pelosi, after serving as House speaker for years, never pushed to remove the 10 figures, her office noted that she directed the relocation of the Robert E. Lee statue from Statuary Hall to the basement of the Capitol, known as the crypt.

“As Speaker, we relocated Robert E. Lee out of a place of honor in National Statuary Hall – a place now occupied by the statue of Rosa Parks,” Pelosi said last week.
 

"DREAMS OF MY FATHER" ... REALLY JUST WHO IN THE HELL ARE WE!?

Parents Demand Removal Of ‘Offensive’ Rainbow Flag ... 
Using the same arguments the left uses for Confederate flags and symbols, parents at an Alabama school have started a petition to remove a rainbow ‘gay pride’ flag. The flag is currently displayed outside of a teacher’s classroom at Auburn high school.

The parents argue that it, “creates a hostile and provocative learning environment for students not comfortable to openly supporting LGBTQ+ community in a public school where students come from diverse political and religious backgrounds.”

So far the petition has 1,161 signatures. It is meant for the school principal and it reads:

“The following signers of this petition ask that the Pride Flag flown in Mrs. Yeager’s classroom be removed as we strongly feel that it creates a hostile and provocative learning environment for students not comfortable to openly supporting the LGBTQ+ community in a public school where students come from diverse political and religious backgrounds. Furthermore, we believe it is unprofessional and distracting for a teacher to be so openly displaying their political views in an unbiased and socially neutral public setting. While the signers of this petition do not feel it is an issue for Mrs. Yeager to support the LGBTQ+ community, we do feel it creates a less than ideal learning environment when a teacher subjects their students to their personal political views in a public school system.

“The signers of this petition feel that the flying of the Pride Flag can create a hostile and uncomfortable learning environment for students who come from families that do not support the LGBTQ+ community. Auburn City Schools clearly promotes quality of education and empowerment of the individual to reach his or her full potential. However, subjecting or explicitly exposing students from diverse political backgrounds to political views differing from theirs can make students uncomfortable and distract them from learning the material assigned to them, preventing them from reaching their full potential.

“In addition, we would argue that it is unprofessional for a teacher to so openly express and subject students to his or her personal political views. Seeing as how it is Auburn City Schools mission to educate students to their furthest potential, we feel like an expression of such polarizing views is a detriment to the overall learning environment of that class as it alienates students with differing political viewpoints. We also feel it is inappropriate for a public school system to allow teachers to explicitly express clearly biased political viewpoints in a supposedly unbiased and politically neutral school system. We feel that an expression of these views only drives a wedge between students with differing view points and can alienate students with unpopular political and/or religious views from the popular majority in the class, further deteriorating the classroom and learning environment.

“In closing, the signers of this petition would like for you to consider the uproar and chaos that would ensue were a teacher to hang for example a Confederate, Christian, or Heterosexual Flag in their classroom. There would likely be protests, emails from teachers, and threatening of lawsuits from parents with differing viewpoints. As such, one does not see teachers hanging these flags in classrooms due to the same argument that it is unprofessional and can create a hostile and unideal learning environment. Taking this and our before mentioned reasons into consideration, the signers of this petition ask that the Pride Flag be removed from Auburn High School in order to preserve a welcoming, beneficial, and unbiased learning environment for students from all political backgrounds attending Auburn High School.”

 This is what the left doesn’t understand. You can’t just go around removing things that offend a few people. It’s not just a slippery slope, it’s downright stupid. There are probably just as many people, if not more, who are offended by a gay pride flag than the Confederate flag. You can’t discount their feelings based on your own interpretation of how things should be removed. The left can’t pick and choose what should be banished from society. That’s not how things really work. So if you want to topple statues and burn flags, be prepared for the consequences.

MCCAIN SHOULD JUST CHANGE PARTY AFFILIATION ... HE'S AN UNDOCUMENTED DEMOCRAT

McCain, others slam Trump for pardoning Arpaio ...
 

President Donald Trump is under fire for pardoning the former Phoenix Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Friday.

Arpaio, 85, who served as sheriff of Maricopa County for 24 years, was convicted of criminal contempt of court for defying a judge's orders that he stop arresting immigrants on the suspicion that they were in the U.S. illegally.

Trump , just as the Texas Gulf Coast was bracing for impact from Category 4 Hurricane Harvey.

The president, whose is at historic lows, was quickly criticized on Twitter by Democrats in Congress.

Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general whom Trump fired earlier this year, tweeted that the pardon "reveals his own contempt for our Constitution."

But the president also heard criticism from lawmakers in his own party. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, frequently a thorn in Trump's side, was among the most vocal critics. Trump pardoning the sheriff "undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law," McCain tweeted.

Jeff Flake, McCain's fellow Republican Arizona senator and a frequent target of Trump's ire, also took issue with the decision:

Meanwhile, Arizona governor Doug Ducey and congressman Andy Biggs are supporting the presidential pardon. Ducey said in a statement that Arpaio "deserves credit for helping to reduce crime in Maricopa County over his long career in law enforcement and public office."

As for the residents of Arizona, only 21 percent were in support of the pardon, according to a survey from last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

THE CANARY, JUST LET ME PUT MY FINGER IN & THE ROAD TO HELL

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Congress Quietly Passed A Bill Allowing Warrantless Searches of Homes - Only 1% Opposed It

HERE'S MY QUESTION: DO WE BLAME THE VIETNAMESE?

GETTING TO KNOW THE REAL JOHN MCCAIN ...

This is John McCain's home in Arizona. Not bad for a man who worked in the military, left the military, and then ran for Congress. He has been in Congress since 1983... for 34 years.

McCain graduated 894th in his class of 899 students from the Naval Academy. He was known for being wild and it usually revolved around women. He was a member of a group of students who called themselves "The Bad Bunch".

• He married Carol Shepp who was a successful swimsuit model. She had been married to one of his classmates and had two children from her first marriage. She and McCain became parents for a daughter one year later. He had been quite a playboy and was already becoming bored with the domesticated life. He requested active duty in Vietnam. While he was there, Carol faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news about her husband. His plane was shot down in 1967 and he became a POW.

On Christmas Eve 1969, Carol and the children were spending the holiday with her parents. After dinner she was going to take gifts to some friends. The road was icy and she slid head-on into a telephone pole. She was thrown from the car through the front window. Her legs, spine, and right arm were crushed and she was in the hospital for 6 months. Ross Perot was an advocate of POW's and he paid her medical bills. She requested that John not be told because she felt he already had enough to deal with.

McCain was released in 1973 and returned home to much fanfare. Carol had several surgeries, lost 5 inches in height, and gained some weight... McCain told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance.
As a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles. "He started carousing and running around with women.", reported Robert Timberg. Bob Timberg was a retired Marine, an American journalist, writer, and author of four books, including THE NIGHTINGALE'S SONG and JOHN MCCAIN: AN AMERICAN ODYSSEY.

• McCain admitted he started having many girlfriends and affairs during this time. On one trip to Hawaii he met an Anheuser Busch distributer heiress, Cindy Hensley, at a cocktail party. She was 17 years younger than McCain and worth $100 million dollars. He invited her to have drinks with him at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He said by the end of the evening he was in love.

They had an affair for nine months while he was still married to and living with his wife Carol. McCain wanted to marry Cindy but needed first to get a divorce. He and Carol separated in January 1980. He requested a divorce in February, the divorce was sped along and granted in April. He and Cindy married 5 weeks after the divorce was final on May 17, 1980. Carol and their children were devastated. McCain callously left his first wife and children behind. He and Cindy moved to Arizona. Cindy's father was well-connected and helped McCain move smoothly into Congress representing Arizona in Washington DC.

• McCain's new wife and her family were extravagantly wealthy. Her father was one of the largest distributors of Anheuser Busch in the country and she was an only child. The divorce settlement afforded Carol McCain full custody of their three children, alimony, child support, including college tuition, houses in Virginia and Florida, and lifelong financial support for her continuing medical treatment from the car accident.

Carol said the reason for the divorce was John turned 40 and he wanted to be 25 again. Carol was extremely hurt She went to work as the press assistant for soon-to-be First Lady Nancy Reagan. She became loved and respected in Washington. She kept a dignified silence about the horrendous way McCain had treated her.

Some of the McCain friends were less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons.

Despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who have not forgotten his treatment of his first wife. Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights.

Ted said, "I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is... deceit.
"When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. Eventually he met Cindy and she was young, beautiful, and very wealthy McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better.

"This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. Yet he has no character. He is a fake."

Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel, even by the standards of modern politics.
Mr. Perot said, "McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory.

After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.

A man who cannot be faithful to a loving, self-sacrificing wife cannot be trusted to be faithful to the American people.

Cindy has also had to learn the lessons about her husband the hard way. Even though she and McCain put on a perfect front for the public, especially when he is running for office, she really is an invisible wife to him.

Tom Gosinski, who served as director of Cindy McCain’s nonprofit American Voluntary Medical Team (AVMT) wrote in his journal about the McCain marriage:

"During my short tenure at AVMT I have been surrounded by what on the surface appears to be the ultimate all-American family. In reality, I am working for a very sad, lonely woman. Her marriage of convenience to a U.S. Senator has driven her to distance herself from friends, cover feelings of despair with drugs, and replace lonely moments with self-indulgences She became addicted to Percocet and had a doctor prescribing them for her illegally. When her parents learned she was taking them, they helped her stop.

Washington rumors were saying McCain had an inappropriate relationship with the young and lovely lobbyist, Vicki Iseman. Ms. Iseman began visiting McCain's offices and campaign events so frequently in 2000 that his aides were "convinced the relationship had become romantic". One staff member supposedly asked, "Why is she always around?" His staff members began a campaign to "save McCain from himself" by restricting Iseman's access to McCain during the course of the 2000 presidential primary. According to the Washington Post, McCain's political advisor John Weaver met with Iseman at Washington's Union Station to tell Iseman not to see McCain anymore.

It is not a real marriage between John and Cindy McCain. Real marriages usually involve living together. McCain and Cindy have not "lived" together for 20 years. To defend this, McCain brags the family takes two vacations together every year and Ms. McCain is the one who has always made that happen."

Two vacations per year...What a farse and fake!! Nothing about this man is real. He has no compassion or empathy for anyone except himself. The only real thing emotion he is capable of is anger. He is famous for his anger.

His father and grandfather were both decorated Navy Admirals. He was given special privileges and extreme preferential treatment while he served in the Navy. He was a pilot but according to his colleagues he was a very bad pilot. He actually crashed three planes. There was a horrendous incident that happened on his aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Forrestal, that killed 134 men. There has been a debate since the incident with some being convinced John McCain was responsible for this accident. Others are angry about anyone who would dare speak against a Naval officer and embarrass an entire branch of service.

Many witnesses have reported that McCain was guilty of a "wet start". When a pilot wants to be a show off, with a "wet start" his engine start creates a large startling flame and lots of surprise noise from the rear of a jet engine on start up. McCain did the "Wet Start". It was not an accident. The flames from the wet start torched off the launching of a powerful Zuni rocket on the plane behind him. The Zuni rockets were famous for having electrical problems. It shot across the carrier’s deck hitting other parked planes that were packing 1,000 high-explosive pound bombs. This caused the bombs to explode. The subsequent massive explosions, fire and destruction went several decks below and nearly sunk this major 82,000 ton U.S. aircraft carrier.

This stunt and aftermath caused the death of 134 sailors and blew off arms, legs, and caused blindness and burns to another 161 sailors. McCain jumped from his plane, rolled across the flames, and escaped. He watched the men dying and the burning from a closed circuit television on the ship. Sadly all of those lives were lost.

They had to take the ship off the battle line for 2 years when it had to be taken back to port for $76 million dollars of extensive repairs. That does not include the cost of replacing the airplanes or ammunition.

Other Navy pilots causing this type of death and destruction would have been arrested and would probably still be in prison. Why didn't this happened to John McCain?

McCain's grandfather was a famous FOUR STAR Navy admiral and his dad, at the time of the incident, was also a powerful illustrious FOUR STAR Navy admiral. McCain had graduated from the Naval Academy. Witnesses say the good ole boy Navy tradition went into high gear immediately. McCain was not even repremanded. When there is a cover-up, the soldier is usually simply assigned to another ship. McCain was quietly assigned to another ship. There is an ongoing debate about the incident to this day.

John McCain's lack of character was further demonstrated when he voted not to repeal Obamacare. He had run his 2016 Senatorial race under the banner he would LEAD the fight to repeal Obamacare. He hates Donald Trump so very much he gleefully held his thumb down for his vote rather than a thumbs up. He laughed afterwards and said, "Let's see Donald Trump save America now!"

What a horrible man. He stabbed his constituents and the citizens of America in the back. Liberal socialists now call him their hero.
McCain has recently discovered he has a brain tumor. I am genuinely sorry for anyone who has to face a health issue especially when it involves cancer. Thankfully for him the doctors have said it is curable. The fact that he now has a brain tumor does not change the horrendous things he has done in his life because of his extremely low flawed character.

If Senator McCain's own health care was dependent on the Obamacare he has continued to saddle the American people with, I guarantee he would not have voted thumbs-down. But because he married a wealthy heiress and has plenty of money to take care of his own health needs, he does not care.
What a guy... what a guy!

WHAT WILL DISNEY DO WITH THE HALL OF PRESIDENTS ... GAG TRUMP?

Confederate Monuments Removed Or Vandalized Across US
August 18, 2017 7:51 PM

(AP) – Confederate monuments are being removed around the country under pressure from those who say they honor a regime that enslaved African-Americans. The pace has increased, however, in the wake of last weekend’s deadly confrontation at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A look at monuments that have been removed, covered up or vandalized in recent days:
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ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND
A statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African-Americans, was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House Friday and trucked away to storage. Three of four voting members of the State House Trust voted to move the bronze statue, which was erected in 1872.
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HELENA, MONTANA
The city removed a granite fountain Friday that stood in a park as a monument to Confederate soldiers since 1916. One of a few people on hand to oppose the removal was detained when she defied orders to vacate the grounds of the fountain. She was later released.
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BELLINGHAM, WASHINGTON
The city near the Canadian border removed signs identifying Pickett Bridge, which was named for Confederate Capt. George E. Pickett. North of Vancouver, former highway markers honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis were splashed with red or black paint at a park on private land Friday.
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS
The Dallas-area theme park Six Flags Over Texas will no longer fly the Confederate flag. The park named for the six flags that have flown over the state said Friday that will now fly six American flags.
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NEW YORK
Transit officials will alter subway tiles at a Manhattan station that have a cross-like design similar to that of the Confederate flag. The design at the 40th Street entrance to the Times Square stop isn’t flag-related but transit officials said they want to avoid confusion about their meaning. Earlier this week, plaques honoring Gen. Robert E. Lee were removed from the property of a now-closed Brooklyn church. Meanwhile, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called on the Army to rename two streets at Fort Hamilton that honor Lee and another Confederate general.
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DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
A statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee at Duke University was found defaced Thursday. The statue in the entryway to Duke Chapel had damage to its nose. Another monument of a Confederate soldier that stood in front of a government office building in town was pulled down by protesters Monday night. Four people have been arrested, and authorities say more arrests are planned. Earlier, two statues in Wilmington were defaced with spray paint.
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LEESBURG, VIRGINIA
A statue outside a courthouse dedicated to Confederate soldiers was vandalized. Obscenities and other graffiti were spray-painted on the 1908 monument sometime before dawn Thursday. The damage was repaired.
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MADISON, WISCONSIN
A plaque honoring confederate soldiers was removed Wednesday from a cemetery and a second monument will be taken down later. The plaque lauded “the valiant” Confederate soldiers buried there. Mayor Paul Soglin said the Civil War was “a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery.”
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PHOENIX
A Confederate monument outside Phoenix was found covered in tar and feathers on Thursday. Earlier, the Confederate Troops Memorial outside the Arizona Capitol was spray-painted white. It was the second time in a week that the memorial had been vandalized.
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BALTIMORE
Four Confederacy-related monuments were hauled away on trucks under cover of darkness late Tuesday night and early Wednesday. Mayor Catherine Pugh said she was concerned that such statues might spark violence.
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KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE
A 1914 monument honoring fallen Confederate soldiers was splattered with paint earlier this week. Opponents are signing a petition to have it removed from a neighborhood near the University of Tennessee campus.
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BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
A 52-foot-tall obelisk honoring Confederate soldiers and sailors was covered by wooden panels at the mayor’s order. The 1905 monument is in a downtown park. The cover-up Tuesday prompted a lawsuit by Alabama’s attorney general, who argues that it violates a new law prohibiting the removal of historical structures, including rebel memorials.
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LOS ANGELES
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where many movie legends are interred, removed a 6-foot Confederate monument that was erected in 1925. The stone and attached plaque stood near the graves of more than 30 Confederate veterans and their families.
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SAN DIEGO
The city removed a plaque naming Confederate President Jefferson Davis from a downtown plaza Wednesday. The 1926 plaque honored San Diego as the Western terminus of the Jefferson Davis Highway between Virginia and California.

YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!

On Friday, the Trump administration released their annual report to Congress on White House Office Personnel. It includes the name, status, salary and position title of all 377 White House employees. The report also said that Trump decided not to take a dime of his salary, instead he donated it to an amazing cause! (see below). 

The report also showed that President Trump is far better at saving money than Obama was. The total annual White House salaries under trump are $35.8 million vs. $40.9 under Obama, a savings of $5.1 million.

Here are some other key findings:

There are 110 fewer employees on White House staff under Trump than under Obama at this point in their respective presidencies.

Nineteen fewer staffers are dedicated to The First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS). Currently, there are five staffers dedicated to Melania Trump vs. 24 staffers who served Michelle Obama (FY2009).

However, it’s what the report said Trump did with this salary that has everyone talking!

Instead of taking his salary, Trump donated all $400,000 to the Department of the Interior where it will be used for construction and repair needs at military cemeteries! AMAZING! It’s so great to have a President who loves our brave military men and women so much!

Oh, and where’s the media coverage of this? Oh that’s right, they don’t cover anything good that the President does.

DEMOCRATS TAP DANCING ON QUICKSAND ... GETTING READY FOR THE DIRT NAP

Dems risk culture war fight in Charlottesville response

ATLANTA (AP) — President Donald Trump’s widely criticized response to white supremacist violence in Virginia has left Democrats in a quandary: how to seize the moral high ground without getting sucked into a politically perilous culture war.

Democrats have denounced Trump for blaming “both sides” for deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, and, more recently, for defending Confederate monuments.

But the party faces a complex task: While addressing race and history in ways that reflect the party’s values, Democrats also need to focus on issues like jobs and the economy that resonate with a wider range of voters, including white independents, ahead of the 2018 midterm election.

The party has been looking to answer Trump’s populism by crafting its own middle-class brand, yet Democratic leaders across multiple states now are pushing to take down Old South monuments like the one that ostensibly sparked the events in Charlottesville, and three rank-and-file House Democrats want to pursue a congressional censure of the president.

In interviews this week before his resignation was announced Friday, White House strategist Steve Bannon gleefully suggested Democrats are falling into a trap.

“I want them to talk about racism every day,” Bannon told The American Prospect, a liberal magazine. “If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.”

Trump himself has called Confederate memorials, most of them actually erected decades after the Civil War, “beautiful statues” that reflect “our nation’s history and culture.”
Polls taken after last weekend’s violence offer some evidence backing Bannon’s and Trump’s view. While polls found widespread disgust with white supremacists, a Marist Poll for NPR and PBS found that just 27 percent of adults queried believe Confederate monuments “should be removed because they are offensive.” About two out of three white and Latino respondents said they should remain, as did 44 percent of black respondents.

THE DEMOCRATS ARE LOST IN THE DESERT OF VOTER APATHY DIGGING THEIR OWN GRAVES!

THANK YOU GEORGE SOROS ...

Andrew Young, a Democrat, civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador, warned this week that the monuments are “a distraction.” He told reporters in Atlanta it is “too costly to refight the Civil War.”

Boyd Brown of South Carolina, a former state lawmaker and onetime member of the Democratic National Committee, says Democrats are right to oppose Confederate monuments and criticize Trump’s remarks. “He tweets something crazy, we react — and we’re not wrong,” Brown said. But “we have to talk about a lack of jobs and education in poor districts, voter suppression laws. Ask why Medicaid funding is always the target. And then explain how all those things hurt more than just African-Americans.”

Trump upset Democrat Hillary Clinton on the strength of his support from white voters, particularly working-class whites who possessed a combination of economic frustration and racial resentments salved by Trump’s promises of immigration controls, law-and-order and a booming economy.

Clinton, meanwhile, concentrated so much on Trump’s deficiencies and outlandish statements that her own policy proposals received less attention. That’s a problem that has beset Trump rivals since he first declared his candidacy: All the attention focused on Trump — even unflattering stories — prevent them from getting out their own messages.

Brian Fallon, who was spokesman for Clinton’s campaign, said Democrats shouldn’t let that happen after Charlottesville.

“As horrifying as what the president has said is, you have to have an affirmative agenda,” he said.

Still, Fallon praised Democratic efforts to keep Trump and Republicans on the defensive over the president’s response — even if it doesn’t help them politically.

“Sometimes it’s important to take a stand regardless of the electoral impacts,” he said, noting that Clinton delivered a speech last year warning of white nationalists’ rise alongside Trump’s campaign.
 

Democrats have tried various tactics to press the Charlottesville issue. Besides the push to censure Trump and remove monuments, they are planning voter organization drives across the United States.

Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, and candidate for governor, is among the Democrats calling for monuments to be moved to museums or cemeteries.

Gillum, who is black, says Democrats must argue “these monuments have been weaponized. We can’t pretend that didn’t happen.”

The issue is reminiscent of South Carolina’s decision to remove the Confederate battle flag from statehouse grounds in 2015 after a white gunman killed nine people at a historic black church in Charleston. Then-Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican who is now Trump’s United Nations ambassador, declared the flag untenably divisive after the wide distribution of photos showing the killer clutching it.

“She was focused on leading the state through a grieving process so it could begin healing,” recalls Rob Godfrey, one of her top aides at the time.

But Godfrey notes Haley never considered jettisoning other Old South relics.

“That was going to drive people apart,” Godfrey says.