I have ridden out many many hurricanes here in South Florida. However, I have never seen anything like this one. The winds are more powerful and it’s larger than any other storm. Momentarily, its track is coming from the south but the path will go through the southernmost portion of Florida and then hit me directly.

I am on a barrier Island. I am in a very strongly constructed structure with no direct exposure to the wind. Still, the winds of this thing are so much greater than the average hurricane that I can’t take that for granted. Of course, it is storm surge that is the real threat to my position. Normally the angle of attack would minimize the storm surge. However, this thing is so big and powerful that anything is possible with it. It’s the perfect storm.

There is one flicker of light left. The storm might turn north early and go past us out at sea. If it continued its early turn it could even miss the continent completely and dissipate in the Atlantic. Increasingly, this is looking like a false hope. I hate retreating. As I have joked before “digression is the better part of valor.” This time I am forced to get to the point and admit that discretion will be the better part of valor in this. I have an offer of safe haven and I will take it. I still have the one last hope to ride it out but that will run out very shortly.

For whom the monster roars, the monster roars at me.

Hashem, Gd of Israel, turn back from Your flaring anger and relent from the evil meant for Your people.

You Who become favorable through compassion and become appeased through pleas. Become favorable and appeased to the poor generation, for there is no helper. Our Father, our King, be gracious with us and answer us, though we have no worthy deeds; treat us with charity and kindness, and save us.

Hashem, Gd of Israel, turn back from Your flaring anger and relent from the evil meant for Your people.

Regards,

Jim

The Breitbart Presidency – Rich Lowry

It doesn’t take political skill or crisis-management ability to show largeness of heart. Future historians will marvel that one of the most damaging events in the early Trump administration came in a botched response to a neo-Nazi rally. Even Jake and Elwood Blues could have gotten this right.

Mr. Lowry is referring to a scene in the movie “Blues Brothers”. Let’s take a look at what he is referring to.

In this wonderfully comic movie scene, as the bluesmobile picks up speed and drives directly at the crowd of Nazis, all of the Nazis manage to jump off the bridge into the water to the approval of the crowd and almost everybody who saw the movie. This, of course, isn’t real life but just a movie. Events are scripted and acted the way we would want them to be. Nobody actually gets hurt but the Nazis are humiliated.

Unfortunately, real-life happened in Charlottesville, not a movie. What Rich and others need to ask themselves is what if the shoe was on the other foot, what if an Antifa protester had driven a car into the Nazis and something much more real would have happened than the scene in Blues Brothers. A car traveling only 30 mph closes upon someone on foot in very little time. Especially if one is distracted or can’t directly see the vehicle as in a demonstration or a crowded shopping area. The likelihood that multiple people would be unable to avoid the oncoming vehicle is very high. What if it was the Nazis that were run over. Would that be funny like in Blues Brothers? What if a Nazi was dead and 10 or 20 wounded. Would that be OK because they were Nazis?

We are stumbling towards anarchy in this country. Pulling down the statue of Robert E. Lee sounds harmless but where will it end. Who determines what will be acceptable and what won’t, a duly elected American Government or a Vigilante Army of political radicals looking to score a propaganda splash.

In light of what was really happening, Trump’s reaction was the proper reaction. He condemned all of the violent behavior. I hate Illinois Nazis too. In fact, I hate all Nazis and I’m glad to mention it. However, I don’t think you give up on the rule of law because a rag tag gang of idiots decide to call themselves Nazis and get a permit to march. It would be nice if everything that happens could follow a script so that what we want to happen always happens. Unfortunately, real-life isn’t that simple. Maybe we all ought to think it through a little more.

Regards,

Jim

I have been waiting for this. The left knows no morality but its blind faith that Socialism will “help” people. When you make a deal with the devil, it’s a lose-lose proposition. You corrupt yourself and any personal moral principles that you have, and then comes the big kick in the backside. Socialism doesn’t work. Now not only did you lose your own moral code, but the people you were going to help are hurt as Socialism destroys the valuable existing institutions.

An all-knowing, all-seeing, single-payer healthcare system with an all-powerful administrative state making the final judgment will now override all moral considerations and all rights of the individuals involved. They are helping people?! There will be no appeal and no way to sue the government.

Baby Charlie Ordered to Die by EU Court To Have Life Support Turned Off Friday

Once you are in this Orwellian world, your only hope is to put enough pressure on the government by media coverage to scare them assuming you can get the media’s attention to do it.

UK Hospital Says Terminally Ill Baby to Have ‘More Time’

When Sarah Palin said that there would be death panels she was naive. A single-payer system is one big death panel.

Author’s note: This post was written one week ago but not published until today.

Recently, I found myself in the odd position of mildly criticizing one of our own. Jonah Goldberg is bright, engaging, and really more fun to read than almost anyone else on the right. However, I am incapable of giving a blanket endorsement to anybody. I don’t think Jonah would fault me. In fact, that is why he is so tough on Trump. I made it clear in my recent post, “Jonah Has Tweet Envy,” that I wasn’t demanding he cease criticism of Trump or was I questioning his loyalty to conservatism. I think the way I phrased it was that his analysis was shallow and his style counter-productive. I predicted blowback from this criticism in the form of a battalion of straw men launched at me and “my kind.” In Jonah’s defense, he did nothing like that. Instead, he seemed to be responding with an interesting new proposition of his own that clarified why he sees Trump in an extremely negative light.

When conservatives said “Let Reagan be Reagan,” they were referring to a core philosophy that Reagan had developed over decades of study and political combat. When people said “Let Trump be Trump,” they meant let Trump’s id run free. The former was about staying true to an ideology, the latter about giving free rein to a glandular style that refused to be locked into a doctrine or even notions of consistency. That’s why saying “Let Trump be Trump” is almost literally the opposite of saying “Let Reagan be Reagan.”

Although I never used the analogy or the phrases of “Let Reagan be Reagan” and “Let Trump be Trump,” it is certainly a reasonable response to my piece. The proposition that, “’Let Trump be Trump’ is almost literally the opposite of saying ‘Let Reagan be Reagan,’” should require a response from me. Here goes.

The idea that Ronald Reagan was seen in a glowing conservative light when he was elected in 1980 is what I would call 20/20 hindsight. We know now more than 35 years later how groundbreaking and successful Reagan’s presidency was. However, in 1980 this was anything but obvious. Remember, the difference that got Reagan elected was the Reagan Democrats voting for him. I was one of them. Being of a consistent philosophical bent (what Jonah thinks of as all important) I first changed my registration in 1980 and Reagan was the first Republican I voted for.

That was the easy part. My parents had evidenced their complete disdain as they couldn’t believe anybody could vote for “a B-movie actor for president.” I didn’t have the heart to tell them that to me he wasn’t a B-movie actor. The B movies were eliminated by television in the 1950s. I would come home from elementary school and turn the TV on in the late 1950s. My two favorites were “The Lone Ranger” and “Death Valley Days.” On “Death Valley Days,” a former B-movie actor had taken over as the announcer. He wore his cowboy hat jauntily to one side and was really pretty good at his job. You see Jonah, in 1980 I was voting to make the announcer from “Death Valley Days” the President of the United States. Better not to mention this to Mom and Dad.

The real reason for my voting for Reagan can be summed up in two words: Jimmy Carter. Carter’s insane obsession with the environment which resulted in the destruction of an already soft American economy was just stupid. His capacity to imagine Communism as a positive force in the world was frightening. He was the first American President to undermine the State of Israel.

Understanding all of this at a philosophical level and knowing from my very recent experience at university that these attitudes were endemic to the left and would be endemic from now on in the Democratic party, I made my decision to make a clean break. Ronald Reagan was not a plus. He was, in fact, an extreme negative. First, there was the seriousness issue. I really did think of him as the announcer from “Death Valley Days.” However, watching the industrial heartland of America being wrecked because those who were its assumed defenders had been seduced by a hopeless ideology was way too painful for me to ignore. The Carter Administration needed to end before it did any more damage. I closed my eyes and voted Republican for the first time. Then Reagan won.

I had no idea what to expect. The next thing I know, Edward Teller was on television describing “Star Wars.” If Reagan was a bad joke to my parents, Edward Teller was Satan himself. (The Satan in Judaism is not exactly Christianity’s Satan. Close, but not exactly.) I face-palmed and cried, “What have I done?” As if to answer this very question the Soviet Union collapsed under the pressure of Reagan and Star Wars. Western Civilization moved upward and into the light. After that, I didn’t worry so much. I knew that it wasn’t just that the Democrats were wrong but that much of conservatism was right.

Thus, for this Reagan Democrat, Ronald Reagan represented anything but a “core philosophy that Reagan had developed over decades of study and political combat.” He was a blind gamble to get rid of the Carter insanity. After the fact, I realized that there was a good reason to be conservative and as idiosyncratic as Reagan was, he got the job done. All’s well that ends well.

Now, what of Trump? Jonah is right that Trump is a very different case than Reagan. However, Obama-Hillary is a very different case than Carter. Carter represented the new left-wing ideology. Obsessive about the environment, blind to the threat by Marxism, and incapable of understanding the economy enough to break the malaise.

Obama-Hillary represented something even worse. Oh, of course, they doubled down on the left-wing ideology. However, it was the identity politics, victim-mongering, and deconstructionism that was new. If Jimmy Carter said something absurd you could debate him and win. If Obama-Hillary said something absurd and you made that point in a debate, you were a racist or a sexist. Obama-Hillary had perfected playing the race and gender cards to a science. A fawning, brainless, spineless media ensured that this fuzzy act could be maintained against all odds ad infinitum. Thus a clearly defined ideology became useless in attacking this bizarre cult-like gang of idiots who now covered Washington DC like some sort of bleach-resistant fungus.

In short, I don’t think even Reagan could have defeated Obama-Hillary and the transgendered, victim-mongering, sexual-schizophrenic Democrat loonies. Little did anyone, least of all me, know that there was a strange orange-haired being in the universe that had the odd characteristic of killing the fungus that was growing all over Washington DC. His very presence seemed to damage the up until then unstoppable fungal growth. Jonah, rather than continue to wildly rip the strange orange creature that neither you nor I fully understand, we should give thanks to a beneficent G-d who has heard our prayers and delivered us from the scourge of Obama-Hillary. Some things are just beyond our ability to predict or control.

Let Trump be Trump and let the fungus among us continue to die.

Good Shabbos.

Victor Davis Hanson’s latest column for National Review is titled “Devin Nunes and Washington’s Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery inside an Enigma“:

The beleaguered Intelligence Committee chairman is the latest target in a partisan smear campaign. He must not step down. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) will not step down from the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee. He is the new target in an already long line of those targeted by the media for forced resignations — Steven Bannon the purported anti-Semite, Sebastian Gorka, the alleged closet Nazi, Jeff Sessions the supposed Russian patsy, and now Devin Nunes, the purported partisan naïf. Nor should he resign — especially given the wider and bewildering landscape of the politicization and corruption of the intelligence community over the last months and the dangerous state in which we all find ourselves vi-à-vis the intelligence agencies and the transition of presidential power.

VDH has hit the target’s bullseye again. Devin Nunes made no mistakes. This is an incredibly dangerous high stakes game where the politicization and corruption of the intelligence community brought about by the previous administration must be stopped dead in its tracks. Nunes may be unorthodox but both his tactics and his purpose are right on target. A hallmark of democracy is the peaceful transition of power. A lame-duck administration used the intelligence community to damage the incoming administration from the other party with a vicious smear campaign. The intelligence gathering rules were changed so they could widely disseminate raw intelligence data which included incidental surveillance of the Trump transition team. Then one of the transition team members was illegally unmasked and the information leaked. As Trey Gowdy repeated a number of times to make sure that Comey understood, illegally unmasking someone who has been incidentally surveilled is a federal felony with a whopping 10-year jail sentence attached to it.

In America, we take a very dim view of using espionage surveillance techniques to smear innocent American citizens. Much less to smear an incoming Administration. From a @JamesMadison post today, “Putin’s Dilemma,” I gather that the Russian government does this kind of thing all the time. I think we need to understand what is at stake. The phony Democrat narrative is just smoke blown in everyone’s face. The real threat to America is to become like the Russians and that threat isn’t going to come from Putin or FSB but from BHO and his angry bitter lapdog minions in Congress and media who can’t for one minute let go of their partisan cabal and care for the national interest.

Given this bizarre house of mirrors, Nunes seems to have decided to bypass the usual intelligence channels and go instead directly to the press and the president. In this way, interested parties may examine for themselves the explosive information that was directed his way.

Let the Truth Decide

Now that news of these latest disclosures is in the public domain, their validity eventually will rise or fall on their own merits. I think the very point of Nunes’s public announcement was to warn that what has so far been leaked to news agencies is not necessarily the truth, and to prod reluctant and possibly politicized agencies to cooperate with the committee’s review — and thereby to get to the bottom of a strange and sad chapter in American history. He has likely succeeded, and we should expect lots of investigations about what was heretofore selectively and opportunistically leaked classified material.

Please read Dr. Hanson’s full article. You will be glad you did.

Author’s Note: I read “Day of Infamy” by Walter Lord when I was 11 years old. It is still the best first-hand account of the attack on Pearl Harbor. A great read you won’t be able to put down.

At 8 am on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, the 183 Japanese planes of the first attack wave descended on Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nagumo’s attack fleet was less than 100 miles from Pearl. Luckily the Enterprise, the huge American aircraft carrier, was at sea. Not so lucky was the fact that the American battleship fleet was anchored and inert, tied up in a neat row called Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor. The battleships were huge sitting targets. Even if someone had sounded an alarm when the planes were spotted on radar, it wouldn’t have made that much difference as it takes two hours for a battleship’s boilers to come up to full pressure so she can move properly. All of the battleships at Pearl had dead cold boilers that morning. Completely tied up at anchor, after coming up to full boiler pressure, it would have taken another 45 minutes with the help of multiple tugboats to get a battleship away from Battleship Row and moving.

It was Sunday morning and almost everyone was at Sunday morning services. However, to this fact and everything I stated in the preceding paragraph, there was one exception. The Battleship USS Nevada had about one-third of her crew and one officer and one quartermaster aboard. The boilers of the Nevada were at about half pressure. She was making repairs, even on Sunday morning.

The Japanese planes of the first attack wave descended without any warning whatsoever. Seeing the sitting ducks on Battleship Row, the pilots converged instantly for the attack on the American ships.

The Nevada was the last ship on Battleship Row in position 8. Ahead of her at anchor was the Battleship USS Arizona. In the first 15 minutes of the attack, a bomb struck the Arizona perfectly penetrating her forward deck armor and exploding her forward ammunition magazine. The entire ship detonated in a huge explosion. The explosion killed 1,117 of her crew of 1,400. Half the ship was gone and the other half was a burning inferno.

All of Pearl Harbor was mad confusion. People running everywhere trying to get to their posts, pinned down by strafing Japanese planes. On the Nevada, the highest ranking officer was Ensign Joseph Taussig, Jr. He was the youngest officer, just out of the Naval Academy and had only been on the Nevada a few days. Also aboard was Quartermaster Chief Robert Sedberry, a man with many years of experience. Ens. Taussig manned the forward anti-aircraft battery himself. A shell smashed his leg, it would later be amputated. Still conscious, he continued to command the anti-aircraft defense. Meanwhile, Sedberry and others made the decision to take the ship into action. They must swing the ship free from her berth without the aid of tugboats, without two hours to bring the ship to full steam, without a civilian harbor pilot, without the navigator, and without the captain. Sedberry manned the helm.

She got past the burning remains of the Arizona just barely. As the Nevada slowly pulled free of her anchorage and steamed down past Battleship Row wild screaming cheers were heard all over Pearl. There she was, the Nevada moving! She was heading for the harbor mouth. She was heading out to sea for the counter attack! As she got about dead center of Pearl Harbor, out of the sky came 171 Japanese planes, the second wave attack.

The Japanese pilots of the second wave were greeted by a riveting sight. Most of the American ships were in flames but a single American battleship was moving out to sea. They knew very well that this ship had 14-inch guns on board. These guns could fire accurately over 20 miles. This ship could do over 30 knots (about 35 miles per hour). In two hours at full speed, she would be in range of their attack fleet. A single 14-inch shell would pierce the unarmored deck of any of their aircraft carriers. One shot might easily sink a Japanese carrier.

The entire second wave descended on Nevada. It is interesting to note that it is not so easy to hit a moving target as it is to punch holes in a sitting duck. However, Nevada wasn’t moving that fast and there were 171 planes to get her. Soon Nevada was on fire from one end of the ship to the other. She had been torpedoed and was taking on water. Ens. Taussig, although severely wounded, continued anti-aircraft fire at the Japanese planes. Chief Quartermaster Sedberry had been radioed a final order. If the Nevada sunk in the harbor channel she would plug Pearl Harbor for a prolonged period of time. Most of the crew had already abandoned ship. The Quartermaster and a few men guided the huge ship towards Hospital Point just inside the harbor mouth to the east. There they beached the Nevada in the sand like a giant canoe. Still conscious, Taussig was carried off the ship.

What is significant about this? Why am I relating this story? Simply because human events, their outcomes and their significance, are so hard to predict. At first, you might think the Nevada‘s short but glorious cruise a total waste and insignificant. However, because she was moving when the second wave appeared, most of the Japanese planes wasted their bombs attacking her. If the Japanese pilots had instead found all of the American ships out of action, they would have immediately turned their attention to the rest of Pearl Harbor’s extensive military facilities. The dry docks most of all. Back in Tokyo, Admiral Yamamoto received the full report. He was furious about the second wave and its failure to bomb the dry docks. He said:

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Because of Nevada, most of Pearl remained intact and was fully operational in short order. With Pearl Harbor’s facilities, The American fleet quickly recovered. At the Battle of Coral Sea, the Japanese found themselves to be less than invincible and suffered major damage.

With the help of a brilliant American code breaker, The American fleet ambushed the Japanese fleet at Midway. This battle crushed the Japanese and broke the back of their fleet. Midway was measure for measure for Pearl Harbor. Nevada‘s short but heroic effort did more than just lift the spirits of the men fighting and dying at Pearl that day. She made it possible for the counter attack to take place.

One should always remember that G-d is in control of events. Sometimes we can foresee events and sometimes not. It is therefore important to serve in the moment both dutifully and creatively and leave the rest to G-d. This is why freedom is so important. Even a young ensign or an old quartermaster might make contributions that affect the outcome of the entire war. When men are free, they hold themselves to a higher standard than any tyrant can obtain from his lackeys. No matter how much power the tyrant holds, the free man will prove superior.

Authors Note: I first posted this in 2012. I made some small changes for a repost in 2013. No changes but a minor title change for 2014. No changes but a little grammatical polishing for 2015 and 2016. The photos of “Battleship Row” and “free and heading for the harbor mouth” were added in 2016.

HRC looked almost human as she relentlessly stumbled through hours of inept questioning except for Jim Jordan. However, the 15 effective minutes were lost by a blind MSM and a limp public.

The former Secretary of State is already guilty (smoking gun and all) of multiple felonies including breaking the espionage act to the tune of a ten-year jail sentence, not to mention her repeated perjuries before Congress. She and Bubba are obviously guilty of a massive multi-billion dollar extortion scam (Clinton Cash) which is the motive for her having the illegal private server in the first place.

Incredibly, we finally have an explanation for it all. She’s “Too Big To Jail!”

“She’s too big to jail,” said national security attorney Edward MacMahon Jr., who represented former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling in 2011 in a leak case that led to an espionage prosecution and 3½-year prison term. He cited a pattern of light punishments for top government officials who have mishandled classified information while lower level whistle blowers such as Sterling have faced harsh prosecutions for revealing sensitive information to expose waste, fraud or abuse in government.

Yep, it’s so simple. Why didn’t I think of it. Sometimes you just need an expert to clear things up for you.

Pardon me for a minute, I need to go throw up.

Regards,

Jim