The elites don’t understand how badly they have governed, how poorly they have executed, and how much the citizens of the west are ready to dump them from power.

In fact they are so clueless their petulant reaction has reached hilarious levels.

All through what I am going to link to and discuss in this post, remember that it is these very same elites whose brilliant failures have had severe impacts on the careers and lives of the citizenry they now fear and loathe. The fortress of ignorance and arrogance that surrounds the Political Industrial Complex (the isolated and opaque bastion of the elites) is now crumbling. The reaction by those who became incredibly wealthy while they destroyed the social fabric and economies of the majority of free people in the west is pathetic – and expected.

[Note: Political Industrial Complex (PIC) = all the career politicians, all the career bureaucrats, the sea of career political consultants and career staff, the political donor class and their career lobbyists, and of course the pliant career political news media. The EU is the epitome of the Political Industrial Complex – the apex of bad ideas hoisted upon the masses without thought or responsibility. The “elite” denizens of the PIC live apart from the rest of humanity]

This year the general citizenry is making it clear it is the elite’s jobs and careers that are on the line now. No more sacrificing the masses for some mythical greater good (which always seems to be only good for those who make a living in the PIC). Now it is the elites turn to be the focus of social and economic experimentation: a return to local democracy and self-governing.

And all of a sudden, now democracy is too ugly for the elites!

Look what happened after Brexit. The UK Pound took a beating and a vast amount of wealth was wiped out ($120 billion or so by some reports).

Did you feel any effect? I know I didn’t. I doubt ANY of the “Leave” voters felt much of anything economically. They had already been deprived of good jobs and wages. I doubt they had extensive stock or treasury holdings. The “elites” over the past decades created this backlash by depleting not just the patience of the citizenry, but their savings and futures as well.

[By the way, ‘elite’ is a self-applied moniker to distinguish them from us ‘nationalists’. They are not ‘elite’ since most cannot perform surgery, delivery a baby, build a solid house, run a farm, operate large equipment, fix a car, build a satellite, etc, etc. They anointed themselves and declared themselves superior so as to not have to compete with the rest of the citizenry regarding innovative ideas and solutions. The only thing they are good at is knowing how to pass bad laws and fail in implementing any legislative solutions. They fear the citizenry because they fear facing their own average intellects]

Two excellent write ups have come out since Brexit, highlighting why the “elite” denizens of the Political Industrial Complex are so confused and angry. Interestingly, these are from denizens of the PIC – from inside the belly of the beast!

First up is from Megan McArdle:

The inability of those elites to grapple with the rich world’s populist moment was in full display on social media last night. Journalists and academics seemed to feel that they had not made it sufficiently clear that people who oppose open borders are a bunch of racist rubes who couldn’t count to 20 with their shoes on, and hence will believe any daft thing they’re told. Given how badly this strategy had just failed, this seemed a strange time to be doubling down.

…

Or perhaps they were just unable to grasp what I noted in a column last week: that nationalism and place still matter, and that elites forget this at their peril. A lot people do not view their country the way some elites do: as though the nation were something like a rental apartment — a nice place to live, but if there are problems, or you just fancy a change, you’ll happily swap it for a new one.

In many ways, members of the global professional class have started to identify more with each other than they have with the fellow residents of their own countries. Witness the emotional meltdown many American journalists have been having over Brexit.

They used to call it “fly over country” – but the fact is the denizens of the PIC are not “elite”, they are the ultimate isolationists. They are the ultimate haters.  And they are the ultimate leeches. Look at Venezuela and you will see what decades of an isolated and insulated Political Industrial Complex will reap in the end. The rich will eat high on the hog, while the masses literally starve from lack of food, die from lack of basic medical services, or become victims of crime due to lack of basic police services.

Megan McArdle continues:

A lot of my professional colleagues seemed to, and the dominant tone framed this as a blow against the enlightened “us” and the beautiful world we are building, struck by a plague of morlocks who had crawled out of their hellish subterranean world to attack our impending utopia.

Emphasis mine. The masses are definitely going to attack the Political Industrial Complex’s “Utopia”. It is a small and greedy little utopia where only the elites gets to partake (remember, the crony big donors live in the PIC as well). Since this utopia (from the elite’s point of view) is actually a blood-sucking cancer from the view of the general public, of course it has to be attacked!

And destroyed. It is simply a matter of self preservation. Self defense.

The second excellent piece was by David Frum:

The paper ballots were still being counted by hand. Only the British overseas territory of Gibraltar had reported final results. Yet the assumption of a Remain victory filled the room—and depressed my hosts. One important journalist had received a detailed briefing earlier that evening of the results of the government’s exit polling: 57 percent for Remain.

The polling industry will be one victim of the Brexit vote. A few days before the vote, I met with a pollster who had departed from the cheap and dirty methods of his peers to perform a much more costly survey for a major financial firm. His results showed a comfortable margin for Remain. Ten days later, anyone who heeded his expensive advice suffered the biggest percentage losses since the 2008 financial crisis.

The bookies as well had it badly wrong.  Apparently, like the pollsters above, these people only listened to other denizens of the PIC. No insight or knowledge from outside could penetrate this opaque utopian bubble.

And as I noted before – why would any anti-big-government voter participate in a poll from the PIC? They won’t. So the polls become more and more over sampled by the PIC defenders: an ever shrinking fraction of the voting population. Do I care if Hillary has a double digit lead over Trump right now? Not when she is sitting in the mid to low 40’s I don’t.

Frum goes on to highlight changes that the elites never had to deal with – just the masses:

British population growth is not generally perceived to benefit British-born people. Migration stresses schools, hospitals, and above all, housing. The median house price in London already amounts to 12 times the median local salary. Rich migrants outbid British buyers for the best properties; poor migrants are willing to crowd more densely into a dwelling than British-born people are accustomed to tolerating.

…

The June 23 vote represents a huge popular rebellion against a future in which British people feel increasingly crowded within—and even crowded out of—their own country: More than 200,000 British-born people leave the U.K. every year for brighter futures abroad, in Australia above all, the United States in second place.

When “home” is quickly transformed by a tsunami of outside influences it is not “home” anymore. Change is not bad, but a disruptive change can create an equally disruptive backlash.

It is hilarious to look at the logic proffered by the agents of the PIC and realize how blind it is. The logic of the “Remain” and Clinton campaign was how could anyone vote for upheaval, for drastic change? But the upheaval and drastic change was being brought on by the elites! The upheaval and drastic changes have been buffeting the citizenry of the west for decades as the globalists have become ridiculously wealthy while pretending it was all for the greater good.

I call BS on that kind of circular thinking!

How could the masses upend the elite’s utopia?

How could they not? As I said – it has come to the point that it is now a matter of survival, of self preservation.

Thus far this revolution has been measured and bloodless, the upending of the PIC Utopia coming from the barrel of the ballot box.

Which is why we now see attacks on democracy itself.

This is why Mitt Romney, Bill Krystal and George Will have all pouted off into history. They are elites on the right side of the PIC.  They are disgusted that they have to pay attention to the American voters. They openly scheme on how to prevent the will of the voters from being expressed.

Well the voters have two words to help them out: “Good Riddance”.

The GOP has stood for democracy, freedom, individual responsibility and small government. It just happens that it needs a good old-fashioned house cleaning to get back to these basics. And the more elites who head for the exits the better.

Don’t let the door knock you on your elite butt on the way out.

Tags: Brexit, Elites, Political Industrial Complex

Looking over the political news media this morning I see most don’t get what happened yesterday. Which means the political elite don’t understand what happened either.

[Note: the news media is a major arm of the Political Industrial Complex, which includes the career politicians, their career staff, the consultancy industry, the crony donors and their lobbying industry and of course a pliant media who makes sure the proper messages are sent out to the masses]

One of the more spot-on write ups was by Roger Simon:

Those same elites had convinced each other they would win and therefore convinced the usual suspects—media, pollsters and, sadly, financial markets—that they were right. They were wrong. Watching them now on the BBC they still cannot comprehend  what has happened. The peasants have revolted—oh no, oh no. There must be some mistake. Didn’t they get the memo? The sky would fall if they left the EU.

Earth to elites: Citizens of truly democratic countries don’t want unlimited immigration into their countries by people who couldn’t be less interested in democracy. They also don’t want to be governed by the rules and regulations of faceless bureaucrats whose not-so-hidden goals are power and riches for themselves and their friends. Simple, isn’t it?

Yeah – pretty obvious. And the parallels to what is going on in America was well caught by Peter Weber:

If you don’t want Donald Trump to be president, the Brexit vote is a wake-up call.

The first lesson Brexit has for anti-Trump America is that there’s a potential majority out there that is angry, scared, and more than willing to jump into the abyss. Sober analysts and economists warned Britons repeatedly that pulling out of the EU would be an economic and security debacle. “They heard the warnings, listened to experts of every kind tell them that Brexit meant disaster, watched the prime minister as he urged them not to take a terrible risk,” says Matthew d’Ancona at The Guardian. “And their answer was: get stuffed.”

…

There was a definite flavor of “Make Britain Great Again” running through the Leave campaign, with Brexit proponents arguing that British sovereignty was being undermined by unelected elites in Brussels. One reason the referendum passed is the unexpectedly strong support of working-class Labour voters in northern England, the rough equivalent of midwestern Reagan Democrats, who don’t believe they have benefitted from open markets and open borders.

The masses are not cowering in fear, they are pissed off. The UK workers were being hammered by UNELECTED ELITES. There was no “believing” required. They know their careers and lives are being sacrificed by people who have protected themselves from these insane social theories.

Globalism is good to a point. Regulation is good to a point. Immigration is good to a point. But those point were passed decades ago.

As Roger Simon noted, these social theories are really “elites get rich” schemes. And the voters figured it out. Too bad for the elites, they should have been listening better. The owners of these countries are more than capable firing bad performers.

The UK representatives have been dismissed for years in the EU (see here and here). The Brussels elites ignored the wishes of the representatives of the EU’s second largest state economy and EU’s most effective state military.  And now the Elites are blaming everybody but themselves!

An interesting fallout from all this is Scotland may hold a referendum to leave the United Kingdom. The Brexit folks – who will be in charge at the time – will not be able to say Scotland should not do the same to the UK as the UK did to the EU!

Those hungering for a borderless world where national identity and tradition are subsumed are finding significant resistance from people who have worked for centuries to establish and maintain their own sense of culture and independence. Why this comes as a shock to anyone is puzzling at best.

But the independent streak may not stop at the borders of the United Kingdom. Scotland barely voted to pass on their own bid for independence not too long ago, and in an odd twist, their desire to remain in the European Union may be providing the excuse they need to take another shot at it.

[note: I am of Scottish, British and Welsh descent].

I do not think this logic pans out. If Scotland’s political elite think their citizens will trade the yoke of the UK for the economic noose of the EU, I think they will find themselves looking for new jobs too. Scotland could be independent again – but for what purpose?  If the Brexit folks are serious about decentralizing power then the UK is going to be undergoing a Renaissance in local-driven democracy.

Anyway, when all is said and done Obama and Clinton landed on the wrong side of history – but Donald Trump called it right! So hopefully America can also have a Renaissance of local governing democracy.

Tags: Brexit, EU, Scotland, Trump, UK

Final (11:53) – yes, everyone is beginning to call it: BREXIT!!

11:50 PM EST: It seems to be over.  Birmingham – a major population center – just came in )with 80% of the vote tallied) and the “Leave” campaign did what it has done all night.  It pulled out a slim lead where I would guess Remain was suppose to win:

Birmingham

Remain 223,451 – 49.58% Leave 227,251 – 50.42%

Leave Majority 3,800 – 0.84%

Tags: Brexit, Live Blogging

Those Democrats who staged a Sit-In in the well of the House of Representatives where much more than churlish and disrespectful of The People’s House – they were in violation of House Ethics laws regarding campaigning.

The fact this spectacle was really a fundraising event was pointed out by House Speaker Paul Ryan today:

At his Thursday press conference, Ryan held up printed copies of a fundraising solicitation. “House Democrats on the House floor. Your contribution will go to the DCCC,” Ryan pointed out. He continued by pointing to each fundraising box in turn, “Fifteen dollars, this one says try giving us 25 bucks, but if you want you can send us 50, a hundred, 250 dollars, 500 dollars, a thousand, because look at what we’re doing on the House floor. Send us money.”

“If this is not a political stunt then why are they trying to raise money off of this? Off of a tragedy. What they’ve called for failed in a committee in the House. The reason I call this a stunt is because they know this isn’t going anywhere. It already failed in the Senate.

The Democrats pouting in the well of the House of Representatives made it clear this was a publicity stunt when they circumvented the communications rules:

Cameras covering the House floor were turned off on Wednesday as Democrats staged a sit-in to try to force a vote on gun control legislation.

House Republicans control the House and the cameras that feed C-SPAN, and said they would be kept off until the House was back in session.

…

Without the live cable feed, Democratic members took to their smartphones to captures pictures of the floor, and Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) used Periscope to live stream the event, though it is against House rules to broadcast from the floor.

Emphasis mine.

So we have fundraising fliers magically appearing during a 1.5 day stunt along with an apparently preconceived plan to circumvent the communications rules with new tech (tech most of these political dinosaurs would be clueless about).  Smells like a campaign fundraising event to me.

So is this ethical? Does this follow Federal Campaign Law and House Ethics rules?

Of course it does not:

Top Ten Things to Remember about Campaign Activity

1. You may not conduct campaign activities in official buildings, using official resources, or on House time.

More here (House Ethics Manual):

This chapter addresses the laws, rules, and standards on four major subjects

relating to campaign and political activity, as follows:

• The general prohibition against using official House resources for campaign or political purposes;

• Campaign work by House employees, which must be done on their own time and outside the congressional office, and without the use of any House resources;

• The solicitation, receipt, and acceptance of campaign contributions, and the general prohibition against taking actions in one‘s official capacity on the basis of political considerations; and

• The proper use of campaign funds

…

As detailed below, official resources of the House must, as a general rule, be used for the performance of official business of the House, and hence those resources may not be used for campaign or political purposes.

It is clear the House of Representatives is not a place for political stunts or fundraisers. So these two dozen or so democrats who participated in this “Pout In” need to be sanctioned for a clear and disgusting use of The People’s House for a crass fundraising activity.

Tags: Democrats, House Ethics, Sit In

The Congressional Democrats have done America a great favor this week.  By staging their “Pout In”, these lovely little Congress-Critters have forced congress to shut down early for the July 4th break:

The revolt in the House of Representatives entered a second day Thursday as protesting Democrats continued to demand votes on gun control measures opposed by Republicans.

While two dozen or so Democratic lawmakers camped out in the well of the House chamber, most of the GOP reps were long gone after Speaker Paul Ryan formally adjourned the body until July 5 during a raucous overnight session.

While this Democrat “Pout In” is just another sign of why Big Government is a Big Headache over a Non-Issue (everyone knows the legislation being proposed would not have avoided the Orlando Massacre), these clowns still deserve a big shout out.

Thank you Democrats, for halting all Congressional Tom-Foolery for the next couple of weeks.  Congress is always at its best when it is not in session!

Tags: Congress, Democrats, Sit In

My previous post on Brexit can be found here. It included a “must see” video on why the United Kingdom must free itself from the bureaucratic tyranny of the European Union. It notes how the EU is run by people who are not elected by anyone. A bureaucracy that is completely isolated from the citizens of Europe, living the pampered rich life away from those who pay the hard earned taxes.

The EU is like a cancer, sucking the economic life out of the majority of hard-working, average people. To see where this is all heading all we have to do is look south – to Venezuela. Back in December, it was clear the country was heading for economic implosion, but the political elites did nothing to avoid mass tragedy:

From the vantage point of the well-kept lawns and overstuffed antique chairs of the exclusive Caracas Country Club, Venezuela doesn’t look so bad.

Much of the oil-rich country is crippled by rising inflation, a lack of basic goods and rampant violence that could lead to the ruling United Socialist party losing control of the legislature for the first time in 17 years in Sunday’s elections. But at this exclusive club, set on the leafy slopes of the El Avila mountain, those troubles seem a world away.

Elegantly bowtied waiters offer club members and their guests an extensive menu, including lobster bisque, lobster ceviche, lobster salad and grilled lobster. Outside the grand mansion clubhouse, a sparkling swimming pool gives way to an 18-hole golf course.

…

While most of these have been middle-class professionals looking for better economic opportunities, the elites are also choosing to live elsewhere.

“I would say that 99% of the 1% in Venezuela have a second home somewhere else,” the businessman said.

The Nero’s of Venezuela fiddle as their country falls apart around them. Venezuela started on this socialist path early, so they are leading the charge into economic oblivion. How far behind is the EU?

In Europe there are some incredibly successful holdouts from the EU – Switzerland and Norway. They enjoy extremely high living standards. The UK could join them this week and begin to turn Europe away from an economic implosion, driven by a self-absorbed and distant bureaucracy. A path away from the Venezuela model.

I think Brexit reflects our choices in this election year here in America. I think the rise of Donald Trump is just like Brexit, a broad-based feeling that something at the top is seriously rotten, and we need to chart a different course.

Our American Political Elite have been striving to insulate themselves from the unwashed masses for decades, and with the support of the Political Industrial Complex have come very close to ensuring no one from the outside can break into the club and remove their greedy hands from the trove of tax revenues. They would love to be in the EU, where the voters have no redress and no way to upend the bureaucrats’ control.

I believe the UK will vote for Brexit on the 23rd. While the polls look close, the phenomena I have seen in recent years is that those who don’t trust the Political Elite tend to not trust their pollsters (who are part and parcel of the overall Political Industrial Complex). So I see the anti “big government” voters hesitant to respond to pollsters, which tends to over sample the pro “big government” voters.

This shows up in the US as a bias towards the Democrats, who tend to poll better than the vote comes out in the end.  The difference between sampling “adults”, “registered voters” and “likely voters”, which trend more republican has you move from the general populace to the actual voters.

Anyway, my feeling is the United Kingdom has become so anxious with the EU shenanigans that they instinctively understand they need to change course.  And I think the same anxiousness has begun to ripple through the American electorate.

This could be a pivotal year for humankind, where the unwashed masses take back their self-governance from command central.

To understand how critical these votes are to self governance, please watch the entire Brexit video.

Tags: 2016 Elections, Brexit, Venezuala

The Obama administration has reached critical stupidity – the kind that goes from laughable to horribly tragic.

Evil has a name, and that name is violent militant Islam:

Islamic terrorism is, by definition, terrorist acts committed by Muslim groups or individuals who profess Islamic or Islamist motivations or goals. Islamic terrorists justify their violent tactics by selectively citing Quran and Hadith and interpreting these scriptures according to their own goals and intentions.

Over the weekend I was stunned to hear our US Attorney General state – outright – the government was going to censor the record regarding the Orlando Massacre:

The Department of Justice is scrubbing references of radical Islamic beliefs from the transcripts of calls Orlando terrorist Omar Mateen made to police during his massacre, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Sunday.

Why do this? I mean, at every point the transcript is blacked out anyone with a few IQ points can fill in “something about Islamic Terrorism”. What is it about facing THIS enemy that has Obama and the Political Elites tied up in mental knots?

Say it: “Islamic Terrorism, Islamic Terrorism, Islamic Terrorism, …”

Update: And now we see the Obama Administration’s stupidity up close and ugly:

“Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [in Arabic]. I let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings,” Mateen told a 911 dispatcher during a 50-second phone call at 2:35 a.m., in the midst of the massacre.

“I pledge allegiance to [omitted] may God protect him [in Arabic], on behalf of [omitted],” Mateen told the dispatcher.

Really?  Are they treating us like children who cannot understand the big bad real world??? – end update

Is this really all beyond dumb and heading into dangerous?

You tell me:

Three Syrian refugees reportedly raped a little girl at knifepoint in Idaho before urinating on her body, an incident that prompted furious residents to accuse Twin Falls city council members of covering up the assault.

…

The perpetrators were three Syrian youths aged 8, 10 and 13, with the oldest boy directing the assault.

I guess the “Elites” are not going to look at the perps’ upbringing, and claim it had nothing to do with their violent actions. We can’t have that! The poor girl probably deserved what these animals did.

When violence is taught at your mosque and in your house, guess what.  You become a violent person.When you are taught females are property, whom you can beat or kill in order for the males to ‘save face’, you become a violent person against females. When it is the law to kill gays and others who have sex “outside marriage” (and they aren’t talking LGBT marriage here folks) you become a person who promotes and enacts violence. If this is the foundation of your belief system – you are dangerous.

How do we go from stopping Christians from saying “Merry Christmas” to this??

I fail to see why the Democrats need to put their heads in the sand on this, but it really baffles me when they demand that everyone follow suite!

My initial reaction to this kind of madness is to kick these people in the butt to wake them up (and open their eyes).

But what we really need to do is get the Democrats out of the White House as fast as possible, and then make sure all the mealy-mouthed congress-critters are put on the sideline (feel free to assume the position modeled above) while the rest of us take action to protect American Citizens – not just illegal immigrants.

These “boys” in Idaho better be on a boat back to where they came from – given what they did to that little girl.

Tags: Idaho, Islamic Terrrorists, Lynch, Obama, Orlando Massacre, Rape, US Attorney General

I wanted to discover the depth of the Obama Administration’s culpability in the Orlando Massacre, because something teed off both Sen McCain and President Obama this week. McCain when he accused Obama for being directly responsible for the events in Orlando, and Obama when he showed his thin skin over Trumps challenge to call the act one of Radical Islamic Terror.

Both got me to thinking, there must be something there for such practiced Pols to lose their cools publicly like that.

But let’s begin with some myth busting and expose Orlando for what it was – an act very much in line with Islam and Sharia law. So says quite a few Imams in Australia:

Imam Yusuf Peer, the chairman of the Council of Imams Queensland, who is a member of the national peak body, told The Weekend Australian yesterday that it was “not permissible” to be gay and Muslim.

…

When asked if sharia ­required death, Imam Peer said: “Yes.”

Imam Peer said because a “proper process” involving “committees” applied, it prevented the “random bashing and killing” of homosexuals: “Nobody can implement Islam­ic sharia on their own. There is a procedure, there is arbitration, there is a committee.”

So the method Omar Mateen used was wrong, but the result maybe not so much??

Sheik Alsuleiman has previously quoted Islamic law on the punishment for zina — sex outside marriage — in which he asked his followers to “remember” sharia calls for the death of those who commit adultery.

Extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir’s spokesman Uthman Badar said on Facebook yesterday that Mr Turnbull was condemning the “normative Islam­ic position on homosex­uality” and criticised fellow Muslims for listening to a lecture on “how they should take liberalism instead of Islam as reference point” in their lives.

OK – so we get the picture. And given how LGBTs have become more and more tolerated by the Great Satan America, it is not a huge leap of logic to see a connection.

So what has the Obama administration done to protect LGBT Americans? The answer is sad. Step 1 was to stop checking people from certain countries as they entered the US (a program not too different from what Trump has discussed at times):

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on April 28 [AJStrata: 2011] that it would terminate the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) …

…

Individuals seeking admission to the United States and who were required to participate in the program were subject to a specialized entry process at U.S. ports of entry, including having their fingerprints and photograph taken. Participating visitors were also [sic] be required to “check-in” with immigration officials 30 days after being admitted to the United States and again at the end of one year, in order for immigration officials to verify that they were complying with the terms of their visas.

Additionally, the Department of Justice (DOJ) required certain individuals from the designated countries who were already in the United States to also participate in NSEERS.

Geez, seems reasonable.  The countries on the “Can’t Just Walk In” list were:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

So we paid special attention to people from these countries with known radicals bent on destroying western civilization. At least until 2011.

According to DHS, between September 2002 and the end of September 2003 (nearly the full course of the special registration component of the NSEERS program), 83,519 individuals participated in special registration interviews at immigration offices nationwide. As a result of these interviews, 13,799 individuals were placed in removal proceedings.

Emphasis mine.  Can we speculate that this means 13,799 possible deadly attacks were foiled? I mean, to be an individual of such threatening stature to warrant being expelled, I would think so?

Of the remainder of the 83,519 individuals monitored in NSEERS, how many decided not to perform a terrorist act once they realized they were exposed? Would any sleeper cell want them??

But Step 2 was the worse action taken by the Obama Administration. Instead of focusing on people from areas of the world known for their hatred of all things American, Obama’s DHS was out training law enforcement to watch Evangelicals, Mormons, Jews and Christians.

Yes, you read that right. In fact, Evangelicals were at the top of the threat list (now we know why we don’t want to use secret lists to curb constitutional rights).

Written on Monday, April 8, 2013

Todd Starnes, writing for Fox News, reports that during a U.S. Army training event, an Army instructor cited Evangelical Christianity and Catholicism as examples of religious extremism—along with Al Qaeda and Hamas.

Not only was it implied that Evangelical Christianity is as dangerous as a terrorist organization, but it was at the top of the list of threats. And, here is that list:
Evangelical Christianity
Muslim Brotherhood
Ultra-Orthodox Jews
Christian Identity
Al Qaeda
Hamas
Abu Sayyam
Ku Klux Klan
Sri Ram Sene
Catholicism
Kamane Movement / Kach
Army of God
Sunni Muslims
Nation of Islam
Jewish Defense League
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
Hutaree

“Islamophobia” was also listed as a form of religious extremism.”

“We find this offensive to have Evangelical Christians and the Catholic Church to be listed among known terrorist groups,” Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said. “It is dishonorable for any U.S. military entity to allow this type of wrongheaded characterization.”

Red emphasis mine, black emphasis from original. Talk about confused! I do not recall Evangelicals, Jews, Mormons, Catholics or Christians killing mass numbers of people in the name of god since 9/11

At least not American ones. The cause of Team Obama’s confusion seems to be a bigotry towards religion in general:

“There was a pervasive attitude in the presentation that anything associated with religion is an extremist.”

…

A report issued by the Department of Justice in 2011 relating to “National Security Division Statistics on Unsealed International Terrorism and Terrorism – Related Convictions 9/11/01 – 3/ 18/10? identified, after analysis, more than 80% of all such convictions tied to international terrorist groups and homegrown terrorism involved defendants driven by a radical Islamist agenda.

Wow.  No wonder Obama is angry at being called out and McCain accused him of creating the mother of all FUBARs. He really is going to avoid facing Islamic threats at any cost, isn’t he? Maybe Obama does need the qualifier “Islamic” so he can distinguish an Evangelical from an Islamists.

The left completely exposed America to violence and death under Team Obama, and Hillary wants more of the same, but faster!

Just Wow.

Tags: Clinton, DHS, Envangelicals, Islam, Obama, Orlando Massacre

I am very disturbed by the train of thought percolating through the Political Industrial Complex the last day or two.

[Political Industrial Complex = Career politicians, their career staff, the sea of political consultants, the crony donors and their lobbyists, the career lead bureaucrats, and of course the pliant “news” media. Basically, the political insiders who like to believe they are “elite”]

The reaction to the Orlando Radical Islamic Terror massacre has emphasized how misguided and distracted the Political Industrial Complex is.  It has emphasized how distant and unconnected from reality these people have become in their limos and gated communities. It has emphasized why they need to be fired.

Apparently, due to the Orlando massacre, it is time to suspend our constitutional rights!

Imagine if the federal government suspended your right to your faith, your right to assemble and your right to speak your mind based on your inclusion on a secret list of American citizens with no prior due process and no open explanation of how you got on that list or how you can get off of it.

Absurd, right? So, why is it absurd to apply that scenario to your 1st amendment rights, but it’s “common sense” when it comes to your 2nd amendment rights?

I listened to Larry O’Connor – author of this great piece – debate his “conservative” side kick on WMAL Radio. It was disgusting.  His side kick asked the dumb question “if they cannot fly, why can they buy a gun?”

Because [insert your favorite insult to intellect here] flying is not a constitutional right! But even worse – this idea WOULD NOT have stopped the Orlando massacre. So why even tie this dumb idea to an event if it wouldn’t solve the risk??

Why? Because the PIC does not care about the victims, it cares about its agenda, its power base, its echo chambers.

O’Connor points out this is all a shell game, because the “no fly” list is not what Congress is proposing,  it is a falsehood for the “too dumb” masses:

But the aide said Feinstein has sometimes referred to the no-fly database rather than the broader one her legislation actually covers for this reason: “That’s more relatable to the average person — people have heard of the no-fly list, not necessarily [ones like] the National Counterterrorism Center’s TIDE database.

… clearly, the Democrats aren’t looking to actually get anything done. They are looking for a fund-raising issue and a divisive wedge issue to polarize Republicans and those of us who crave our liberty over pretty much everything else.

The larger secret list contains around a millions names. But even if it contained 10 names, trading our rights away is not the answer.

Omar Mateen was on the FBI’s radar.  They were even informed of his attempts to buy bullets and body armor:

Abell said that Mateen asked for level 3 body armor, but the store doesn’t sell it. He also said Mateen made a phone call and spoke Arabic before asking for bulk ammunition.

The employees did not sell him any ammunition and Abell stated that “we contacted FBI direct” after Mateen left the store, but they were “not as attentive as we would have hoped.”

So even when notified, the FBI (and the administration overall) seems to be very hesitant to pursue  threats when the threat is from a Muslim. Hesitant to the point of paralyzed it seems.  Which is not a surprise, since the administration bans the words that best describe Radical Islamic Terrorism. Hell, they even want to ban the phrase “Illegal Alien”!

Here are my proposals:

• The “no-fly” list and other well maintained lists should be tied to all gun background checks – if they aren’t already.
• The gun sale cannot be stopped in some cases where the persons rights are still intact, but it can be suspended briefly. During the suspension law enforcement then contacts the individual and explains clearly to them they are deemed a threat. This could divert some from a rash act, but probably not someone like Omar Mateen. At a minimum though, this interview would allow law enforcement to decide whether to implement constant surveillance in case the person is not to be diverted. If Mateen had been under surveillance, then the attack in Orlando might have been stopped before it started. Yeah, this is more work – but many have died for our Constitution so buck up.
• It should also be illegal for any non-citizen to purchase any gun until they have been in the US 12 months and they have legal documents. This is just common sense. If caught with a gun illegally they are immediately deported. This would basically put a ban on gun purchases to all those who have crossed our borders in the last year under Obama’s foolish actions.

These three basic things could make a huge difference. Much more of a difference than banning gun sales to people who have not yet been proven guilty of any crimes.

We should not let terrorists or deluded political “elites” rip up our constitution, and we must think of ways to make another Orlando massacre very difficult to pull off. In my humble opinion these steps would do that.

Update: Idea number 4 – allow clubs to hire people with military or police experience (and I would restrict this to only former military and police given their training) to be armed security for large clubs, etc.  A lone wolf will not take on an armed fortress.

Update 2: More details on the gun store that informed the FBI of Mateen’s interest in body armor – and a possible co-conspirator (or more likely handler)

You heard right. When denied the purchase of body armor, “Lone Wolf” Omar Mateen got on the phone, had a conversation in a foreign language and then started asking about purchasing large quantities of ammunition.

He had a handler for sure. When the body armor was not available he asked for guidance on what to do.  He was directed to ask for “bulk ammo”.

Tags: Constitution, Gun Ban, No Fly List, Orlando Massacre

Most people probably believe that to perform national security against terrorist attacks on US soil, it would entail some form of “connecting the dots”. Another way of saying this is: one would need to pull together independent pieces of information to build a picture that could be a warning of a threat that could be acted upon to save lives.

But first you have to have the dots that make up the picture of the threat. Finding the right dots to identify a threat is hard enough.  It is like looking for a light gray dot in a sea of slightly gray dots. And the the picture takes time to put together, so the dots don’t connect all at once but over time.

You would think that.

But the Obama administration tends to fly in the face of common sense, and it spent a lot of its energy erasing dots before they could be connected. From Feb of this year:

Amid the chaos of the 2009 holiday travel season, jihadists planned to slaughter 290 innocent travelers on a Christmas Day flight from the Netherlands to Detroit, Michigan. Twenty-three-year old Nigerian Muslim Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab intended to detonate Northwest Airlines Flight 253, but the explosives in his underwear malfunctioned and brave passengers subdued him until he could be arrested. The graphic and traumatic defeat they planned for the United States failed, that time.

Following the attempted attack, President Obama threw the intelligence community under the bus for its failure to “connect the dots.” He said, “this was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had.”

Tags: Delete, DHS, Obama, Orlando, Pulse, Terrorist Evidence