History for July 4

History for July 4 - On-This-Day.com:
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804, Stephen Foster 1826, Calvin Coolidge (U.S.) 1872 - 30th President of the United States


Rube Goldberg 1883, Ann Landers 1918/Abigail Van Buren 1918, George Steinbrenner 1930


1776 - The amended Declaration of Independence, prepared by Thomas Jefferson, was approved and signed by John Hancock, the President of the Continental Congress in America.


1802 - The U.S. Military Academy officially opened at West Point, NY.


1803 - The Louisiana Purchase was announced in newspapers. The property was purchased, by the U.S. from France, was for $15 million (or 3 cents an acre). The "Corps of Discovery," led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, began the exploration of the territory on May 14, 1804.


1817 - Construction began on the Erie Canal, to connect Lake Erie and the Hudson River.


1946 - The Philippines achieved full independence for the first time in over four hundred years.


1966 - U.S. President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act, which went into effect the following year.


1976 - The U.S. celebrated its Bicentennial.


2009 - North Korea launched seven ballistic missiles into waters off its east coast that defied U.N. resolutions.

Trump–Russia Collusion: Nonsense on Stilts | National Review

Trump–Russia Collusion: Nonsense on Stilts | National Review:

"here’s the latest big “collusion” story that has been, er, broken by the Wall Street Journal.

About ten days before he died in mid-May, an 81-year-old man who did not work for the Trump campaign told the Journal he had speculated that, but did not know whether, 33,000 of Hillary Clinton’s e-mails had been hacked from her homebrew server. The now-deceased man, “a longtime Republican opposition researcher” named Peter W. Smith, had theorized that the e-mails must have been stolen, “likely by Russian hackers.” But he had no idea if this was actually so, and he himself certainly had nothing to do with stealing them."

The way we were-----An Officer And A Gentleman (Reto al Destino) - Final Scene

This explains much. Read it all!-----Blog: A strangled chihuahua, a possessed rabbit, and the media

Blog: A strangled chihuahua, a possessed rabbit, and the media: 
"The arrest this week of 61-year-old Alice Evans of Marathon, Florida for killing her 12-year-old Chihuahua might go some way to explain the media's blind animosity toward President Trump.
The dog, Big John Evans, had bitten her, the third bite this year, and, supposedly afraid of being bitten again, she strangled it and buried it in her backyard.  
Weirder yet, when the police learned of the affair, they exhumed the body, performed an autopsy (yes, I know it's technically a necropsy) to verify the cause of death, and charged Alice with animal cruelty, and she wound up where she apparently still is as I write this: modeling an orange jumpsuit in the local lock-up while trying to raise $25,000 in bail money.

People do bizarre things, but strangling your Chihuahua has got to be right up there among the most curious.  
She had had the pet twelve years, must have loved it because she gave it her family name, and there's been no report of her having abused it in any way in all that time – or, in point of fact, done bad things to any other four-legged creature, ever.
But it gave her another little nip, described as smaller than a pencil eraser, and she choked the life out of it. 

And a parallel struck me: a man who, many years ago, kept trying to kill his rabbit.
A fellow manager years ago walked into my office and said he knew I had children, and since his wife had left him several weeks before, he wondered if I wanted the animal.  
A giant rabbit complete with cage, water dish, rabbit toys, and a supply of rabbit food.
It seemed a fit.  
My wife and I were raising the children in a rural location with plenty of animals – cat, dog, pony, turtles, chickens, and what have you.  
So, long story short, just as it was getting dark that afternoon, I followed the directions he gave me and pulled into the drive of a nicely appointed High Ranch on a quiet road near Woodstock, New York.  
I knocked on the door, and a quavering voice told me to come in, and I found him seated at the kitchen table, no lights on in the gathering darkness and staring off into space.  
In a cracking voice, he told me where the rabbit and cage were in the basement and explained that he didn't want to help me because he didn't know what the thing could or would do to him once he realized he was being given away. 
"I've already tried to kill it several times" he told me in a matter-of-fact voice, because "powers from beyond the grave had gathered in the animal, and sooner or later, it's going to kill me," but a mysterious "force field" the rabbit seemed to control had stopped him each time.
So maybe poor Alice Evans came to fear her Chihuahua in much the same way as that mentally tortured man feared his rabbit?  

I dunno, but the two cases taken together do seem to explain a lot about the media's frightened animosity toward President Trump and why they frantically keep trying to kill him off.  
Deep down, they're scared – really, really scared.  
They've seen mysterious powers not of their world gather in him, and in handily defeating Hillary, withdrawing from the Paris Accord, restricting Muslim immigration, building the Wall, and rolling back Obama's legacy, he seems protected by an occult force field they cannot penetrate.
Hmmm?
I believe I'm more right than wrong.
PS: The rabbit turned out to be a great pet.  The kids loved him, and we had him for years.
Richard F. Miniter lives and writes in the colonial-era hamlet of Stone Ridge, New York and may be reached at miniterhome@gmail.com.  
The acclaimed author of The Things I Want Most, his most recent book, What Sort of Parents Should We Be?: A Man's Guide to Raising Exceptional Children, is now available here."

Battenfeld: Salary hikes, bonuses abound at taxpayer-funded WGBH | Boston Herald

Battenfeld: Salary hikes, bonuses abound at taxpayer-funded WGBH | Boston Herald
"Boston public broadcasting behemoth WGBH, facing potentially severe budget cuts by the Trump administration, awarded big pay hikes and bonuses to executives and staffers last year while reporting a $38 million loss, new reports show.
The taxpayer-funded nonprofit’s CEO, Jonathan Abbott, got an $85,000 bonus in the 2016 fiscal year, boosting his annual compensation to $624,930, according to tax reports filed with the state attorney general’s office.
WGBH gave out a total of nearly $300,000 in bonuses to 10 employees, including Abbott, according to their financial reports.
New on-air host Jim Braude earned nearly $364,000 in the 2016 fiscal year, reports show, while seven other high-ranking staffers and executives also topped the $300,000-a-year mark.
...WGBH’s recently filed audit with the attorney general’s public charities division show the organization spent a total of $217 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, while getting a total of $179 million in operating revenue and other support.
That left WGBH with a nearly $38 million deficit for the fiscal year..."
Read on!!

Michigan College Arrests Kids for Handing Out Constitutions, Whines About Being ‘Vilified’ When Students Sue - Reason.com

Michigan College Arrests Kids for Handing Out Constitutions, Whines About Being ‘Vilified’ When Students Sue - Reason.com:

"Young Americans for Liberty (YAL) members were passing out pocket-sized copies of the U.S. Constitution to fellow students at Kellogg Community College (KCC) in Michigan when college officials approached them and ordered them to stop. When the members refused—arguing that the First Amendment protected their actions—they were arrested for violating the school's policies."

Shades of deceit:

Bill Warner, Phd - Posts:
Bill Warner, Phd

2 hrs · 

Shades of deceit:
Taqiyya (Shia) or Muda'rat (Sunni): tactical deceit for the purposes of spreading Islam.

• Kitman: deceit by omission.

• Tawriya: deceit by ambiguity.

• Taysir: deceit through facilitation
(not having to observe all the tenets of Sharia).

• Darura: deceit through necessity
(to engage in something "Haram" or forbidden).

• Muruna: the temporary suspension of Sharia in order that Muslim immigrants appear "moderate".

Read the comments!

BREAKING: Obama Caught In $5.9 BILLION Welfare Scandal – Should He Be Prosecuted?

BREAKING: Obama Caught In $5.9 BILLION Welfare Scandal – Should He Be Prosecuted?
"Liberals are constantly going on about how welfare programs are the only thing between millions of Americans and literal starvation.
If you don’t support their big-government ideas (they say), you just want people to die!
Their narrative just took a major hit when it was revealed that 65% of Obama phone recipients are defrauding taxpayers! 
In a recently-released 90-page report from the Government Accountability Office(GAO), the Lifeline Program — the “Obamaphone” program — was found to be riddled with fraudulent activity.
The Lifeline Program is a program that was actually instated before the Obama Administration to give cell phones with limited use away to the economically disadvantaged.
It was labeled the “Obamaphone,” however, due to the increased attention it received during the president’s tenure.
...Upon investigation, the government found that more than a third of “Obamaphone” recipients may not have even been qualified to receive the welfare benefit. 
But the finding that has incited the most speculation is the approximately $9 billion deposited into private bank accounts rather than the program-appointed accounts in the federal treasury.
Is this an oversight or something worse?
U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) stated, “A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong. We’re currently letting phone companies cash a government check every month with little more than the honor system to hold them accountable, and that simply can’t continue,” via Fox News..."
Read on!

Lunch video-----Watch: Libs Will Have a Mental Breakdown After Seeing This NRA Ad

Watch: Libs Will Have a Mental Breakdown After Seeing This NRA Ad
"Liberals across the nation lost their ever-loving minds this week after the National Rifle Association published a recruitment video that urged conservatives to fight back against violent liberalism not with equal doses of violence but with the “clenched fist of truth.”

...“The only way we stop this,” Loesch continued, “the only way we save our country and our freedom, is to fight this violence of lies with the clenched fist of truth. I’m the National Rifle Association of America, and I’m freedom’s safest place.”

The evidence backs up every allegation Loesch made about the left’s most deranged fanatics. They do riot, they do hurl unsubstantiated allegations and they do terrorize the American people..."

Noon-toon

Oregon house passes free abortions bill with Reproductive Health Equity Act - Washington Times

Oregon house passes free abortions bill with Reproductive Health Equity Act - Washington Times:

"An Oregon bill requiring health insurers to provide their customers with free abortions — including illegal immigrants — has advanced to the state Senate after winning approval in the state House with no Republican votes."

Obama warns Americans about too much patriotism - on July 4th weekend! - The American MirrorThe American Mirror

Obama warns Americans about too much patriotism - on July 4th weekend! - The American Mirror
"...Barack Obama visited Indonesia this weekend, and in a series of appearances, attacked love of country and the policies of Donald Trump.

The Guardian reports:

The former US president said some countries had adopted “an aggressive kind of nationalism” and “increased resentment of minority groups”, in a speech in Indonesia on Saturday that could be seen as a commentary on the US as well as Indonesia.
...But he said that increased prosperity had been accompanied by new global problems, adding that as the world confronts issues ranging from inequality to terrorism, some countries – both developed and less developed – had adopted a more aggressive and isolationist stance.

“If we don’t stand up for tolerance and moderation and respect for others, if we begin to doubt ourselves and all that we have accomplished, then much of the progress that we have made will not continue,” he said.  
“What we will see is more and more people arguing against democracy, we will see more and more people who are looking to restrict freedom of the press, and we’ll see more intolerance, more tribal divisions, more ethnic divisions, and religious divisions and more violence,” Obama asserted.

...On the very same day and in sharp contrast, President Trump boasted about America and saluted veterans during the “Celebrate Freedom Rally” in Washington, D.C.

Fox News reports:

“America is a land rich with heroes,” said Trump at the event, which included wounded warriors who are patients at the Walter Reed Medical Center.
...“We all bleed the same red blood,” said Trump, promising an adoring crowd that America would “win again.”

“Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago, America always affirmed that liberty comes from our Creator. 

Our rights are given to us by God, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away. That is why my administration is transferring power out of Washington and returning that power back where it belongs — to the people,” Trump said...

Watch the incredible event here:

#1 Movie this week 1961-----The Guns Of Navarone

FLASHBACK: New status anxiety fuels Trump derangement. Our privileged, college-educated left

Instapundit » Blog Archive » FLASHBACK: New status anxiety fuels Trump derangement. Our privileged, college-educated left —…:
"FLASHBACK: New status anxiety fuels Trump derangement.

Our privileged, college-educated left — what Joel Kotkin calls the gentry liberals — feels that its preeminent position in American society is under threat.
And people care a lot about status.
What’s more, the people who seem to be lashing out the most are, in fact, just those gentry liberals: academics, entertainers, pundits, low-level tech types, and so on. 

As journalism professor Mark Grabowski reported, another academic texted him on election night: “Oh my God! We will be the ones ostracized if he wins.”
Maybe we shouldn’t “ostracize” people based on whether their candidate wins, but in a way this professor was right: 

A Trump victory is a blow to the status of the people who thought Hillary Clinton was their candidate — one that they feel even more deeply because gentry liberals, having been raised on the principle that the personal is political, seem to take politics pretty personally.

Related: Trump Is Playing With The Press.

Knowing how much they hate him, he’s constantly provoking them to go over the top. 

Sean Spicer’s crowd-size remarks on Saturday were all about making them seem petty and negative. 

(And, possibly, teeing up crowd size comparisons at this Friday’s March For Life, which the press normally ignores but which Trump will probably force them to cover).
Trump knows that the press isn’t trusted very much, and that the less it’s trusted, the less it can hurt him. 

So he’s prodding reporters to do things that will make them less trusted, and they’re constantly taking the bait.
They’re taking the bait because they think he’s dumb, and impulsive, and lacking self-control — but he’s the one causing them to act in ways that are dumb and impulsive, and demonstrate lack of self-control.

And they still haven’t learned.---Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 6:34 pm"

Read on!

#1 This day-1955-----Bill Haley ＆ His Comets- Rock Around The Clock

Forget Paris: 1600 New Coal Power Plants Built Around The World | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

Forget Paris: 1600 New Coal Power Plants Built Around The World | The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF):
1,600 new coal-fired power plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries.

"When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change.
But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: 
China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade.
These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. 
Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, roughly a fifth of these new coal power stations are in other countries.
Over all, 1,600 coal plants are planned or under construction in 62 countries, according to Urgewald’s tally, which uses data from thel Coal Plant Tracker portal. 
The new plants would expand the world’s coal-fired power capacity by 43 percent..."

You ought to know!

Donald Trump's ISIS annihilation strategy quickly liberates territory - Washington Times

Donald Trump's ISIS annihilation strategy quickly liberates territory - Washington Times:


"Defense Secretary James Mattis announced the annihilation strategy in mid-May, but before that commanders in Iraq and Syria got the go-ahead to fight ISIS, as the Pentagon calls the terrorist army, Trump-style.
Under President Obama, U.S. Army Special Forces assigned to Syrian Democratic Forces needed special approval from Washington for virtually all tactical moves amid the politically complex theater of Americans, Arabs, Kurds, Turks and Syrians."