B-Man

Can Anyone Explain to Me Why We Still Need the TSA? By Ward Clark When the Transportation Security Administration was founded in 2001, in response to the 9/11 terror attacks, Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD) famously stated, "You can’t professionalize if you don’t federalize.” While that statement, especially given the benefit of hindsight is giggle-inducing, today's shows of security theater at the nation's airports are making Senator Daschle's remarks even more nonsensical. {snip} I've often wondered why we need the TSA. Previously, security screening was handled by the airports and airlines. Yes, on 9/11, there were failures in screening, as the terrorists were allowed to board carrying box cutters. There were also failures in immigration screening and in many more areas, but we might remember: Hindsight is always 20-20. It's unclear as to why we need to have an entire federal administration to do this when the airports and airlines handled it very well for many decades — and there's no reason that we can't have certain legal guidelines security contractors should abide by, like "Don't let people carry box cutters on to airplanes." Some of the post-9/11 security measures make some sense. Locking cockpit doors is one of them. But too much of what goes on in our airports is not security; it is security theater, a theater that at times requires the "random" frisking of little old ladies and toddlers. Maybe Elon and Vivek need to add TSA to the DOGE list — for reform, at the very least. https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/12/08/can-anyone-explain-to-my-why-we-still-need-the-tsa-n2182952

I remember. Added: I think that the guy second from the left in line, is actually him.

"600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever." "Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians. There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin. Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!" Writes Trump on Truth Social. https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113615912452824634 The NY Post writes about that statement in "Trump calls on 'weakened' Russia to enact ceasefire in Ukraine after Kremlin ally Assad is toppled in Syria." Excerpt: "Trump, who has at times expressed a fascination with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, remarked about how feeble Moscow appeared in Syria after the shocking and swift fall of Bashar al-Assad, whom Russia backed with troops, aircraft and navy ships." https://nypost.com/2024/12/08/us-news/trump-calls-on-russia-to-enact-ceasefire-in-ukraine-after-assad-is-toppled-in-syria/

This is too funny. For President Trump at Notre Dame, it’s an ordinary walk to his seat, except something happened. It starts out with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda standing up to greet President Donald Trump. They are friends, and Duda is one of the EU heads of state that is seriously thrilled to see President Trump return (Hungary’s Orban is another). However, after Duda stands things get funny because all the other dignitaries then feel obligated to stand and greet President Trump. President Trump ended up turning his simple walk to his seat, into a reception line of foreign dignitaries who stood at attention to greet him. I cannot stop laughing because it’s just so epic.

Your Sunday Clarice. A Tale of Two Parties By Clarice Feldman Eighty-three years after the disastrous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor which galvanized our nation to prepare for a long fight and ultimate victory, we have a clearer picture of how Barack Obama (and through him, President Biden) destroyed his party and with it many of our institutions. We now have a leader and a plan to restore their strength. Much has been written about why the Democrats suffered such a devastating loss in the election, but I’m inclined to place great weight on the views expressed by Adam Mill in Chronicles Magazine, who argues persuasively that the Democrats’ decision-making process doomed their chances, a process unlikely to soon change. “Democrats don’t have leaders, rather they have ‘facilitators’ who balance the many competing demands of their disparate coalition, leading to a rigid script of talking points,” he argues. To keep on message is the key autocratic aim of the party, so any “single deviation from the script endangers the entire enterprise.” This explains as well as most theories why Kamala Harris’s rare public interviews devolved into bafflegab word salads. Why in the absence of good sense, the party left the border open, supported pornographic books in public school libraries, “fought for abortion of viable fetuses up until birth, and demanded free sex surgeries for illegal immigrants in custody.” By contrast, Donald Trump, who had clear views of his own on significant subjects, met with hostile reporters, political critics, and opponents. “He preserves his own agency.” The consequences of their rigid orthodoxy not only damaged their party, but caused all of us to suffer from their tactics, not the least of which is “a widespread crisis of incompetence within the institutions that sacrificed merit for ideological parity.” The party was riddled with corruption, and it spread throughout the government. As Michael Walsh has long contended, the Democrats “are nothing less than a criminal organization masquerading as a political party.” Which institutions sacrificed merit for ideological parity? Our once great schools of higher education, our military, and the nation’s public health and law enforcement agencies come immediately to mind, but the incompetency, corruption, and extravagant waste of our resources throughout the federal government, not to speak of their illegal censorship of speech and assembly, can best be explained by this analysis as well. In contrast to the generally incompetent Biden cabinet, who often rose through the ranks of those they were set to govern, President-elect Trump has reached out to some of the most forward-looking, competent, non-governmental leaders to head his government -- people like Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, Doug Burgum, Howard Lutnik, Scott Bessant, Jared Isaacson, and Kelly Loeffler. More at the link: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/12/a_tale_of_two_parties.html

You might have missed it, but Ray Epps’ lawsuit against Tucker went down in flames by Adam Pack A federal judge dismissed a January 6th defendant’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its former primetime TV anchor, Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson on Wednesday. Delaware Federal District Court Judge, Jennifer Hall, ruled that Carlson’s reporting on Epps was protected under the First Amendment because Epps’ lawyers did not prove Carlson had acted with “actual malice.” “For the reasons announced from the bench today, it is hereby ordered that Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim is granted,” Hall, a Biden appointee, wrote. Members of the corporate media claimed that Epps would win his lawsuit against Fox News https://www.bizpacreview.com/2024/12/07/you-might-have-missed-it-but-ray-epps-lawsuit-against-tucker-went-down-in-flames-1508035/ ,

President Trump Responds to Civil War in Syria: "This is not our fight" ... "Do not get involved" According to Reuters, “Syrian rebels announced they gained full control over the key city of Homs early on Sunday after only a day of fighting, leaving President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year rule dangling by a thread as insurgents marched on the capital, Damascus.” Responding to the situation on the ground, President Elect Donald Trump says we should stay out of it. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/12/07/president-trump-responds-to-civil-war-in-syria-this-is-not-our-fight-do-not-get-involved/

Damascus has fallen: Rebels declare a 'free Syria' as they swarm capital... while its brutal dictator flees by Joe Hutchinson Syrian rebels fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad have entered Damascus as they capped a stunning advance across the country. Residents of the capital have reported sounds of gunfire and explosions, with the insurgents announcing they had also liberated the Saydnaya military prison north of capital. On Saturday evening local time, opposition forces took the central city of Homs, Syria's third largest, as government forces abandoned it. The city stands at an important intersection between Damascus, the capital, and Syria's coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus - the Syrian leader´s base of support and home to a Russian strategic naval base. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14170031/Damascus-surrounded-rebels-swarm-Syrian-capital.html?ico=related-replace

SMU.

You don't draft backup quarterbacks. .

No surprise. To authoritarians, Truth is the enemy. Democrats Pressured Capitol Police to Show Preferential Treatment to Officer Who Killed Ashli Babbitt by Jeff Charles The United States Capitol Police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the events at the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, reportedly received preferential treatment from the law enforcement agency after Democrat lawmakers applied pressure. Internal emails reveal that House Democrats leaned on U.S. Capitol Police to provide extraordinary financial and professional support to Lt. Michael Byrd, the officer who fatally shot unarmed protester Ashli Babbitt https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/12/05/democrats-pressured-capitol-police-to-show-preferential-treatment-to-officer-who-killed-ashli-babbit-n2182853

FTA: Now Obama is giving speeches about defending Democratic norms and freedom, accusing Republicans of doing what Biden and he did. And the press will lap it up, because that is what they and the cultural elite want to hear--they are the good guys. Only they are not. They are the same people who spent the last decade suppressing speech and undermining all the norms that kept our democratic republic going. If Donald Trump only accomplished one task during his presidency, I would choose this: expose them all. Forget jailing them. Humiliate them through exposure. Lay it all out there. Destroy their power by destroying their reputation. Our greatest enemies are the transnational elite, and all the policies we hate are downstream from their control over information flow. They retain respect from many people, and the way to strip their power is to strip them of their prestige. Humiliate them. Expose them. Make them pariahs. It is the only way. And if you can jail a few, then that is just a bonus. https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/12/06/projection-thy-name-is-obama-n3797658

Projection, Thy Name Is Obama David Strom Barack Obama is the archetype of the overeducated leftist Democratic Party. Smart, good-looking, well-educated, and smugly sure of himself, he perfectly reflects the self-impression of the academic and cultural elite wing of the progressive movement. He is of the antifa-justifying wing, who cluck about the excessive enthusiasm of the brownshirts but who also kneel and applaud as they burn down our cities in the name of Justice. Obama's great skill is slyly insulting Americans as racist boobs while sounding good and reasonable while doing it. It flatters the cultural elite, reinforcing their sense of self-importance and moral superiority, and reinforces their contempt for the masses. Another of his skills is the rhetorical jiu-jitsu move of accusing Republicans of doing what Democrats do all day and every day. This is utterly absurd, of course. It is the same move the Democrats are now making to justify pardoning all the evildoers who have helped Biden weaponize government against Republicans. "Trump will weaponize government," say the people who have jailed Trump's supporters, put parents and Catholics on terrorist watch lists, and tried to bankrupt and jail Trump. Democrats have abused their power incessantly, with Obama himself siccing the FBI after reporters with illegal wiretaps, abusing the IRS to go after conservative nonprofits, and starting the Crossfire Hurricane harassment campaign to cripple Donald Trump's first presidency. Now Obama is giving speeches about defending Democratic norms and freedom, accusing Republicans of doing what Biden and he did. And the press will lap it up, because that is what they and the cultural elite want to hear--they are the good guys. Only they are not. They are the same people who spent the last decade suppressing speech and undermining all the norms that kept our democratic republic going. https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/12/06/projection-thy-name-is-obama-n3797658

“Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists.” — Thomas Sowell

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Hegseth On Track? By John Hinderaker The Democrats have mounted a smear campaign against Pete Hegseth. With Matt Gaetz gone, he appears to be their number one target. The smears have involved Hegseth’s relationships with women and allegations of excessive drinking. But there are problems with the Democrats’ campaign: the allegations are anonymous, and thus in the realm of rumor. And they are nearly all old, and generally contradicted by others who are willing to go on the record. If the question is whether Hegseth has a checkered history with women, the answer is yes. But there is no solid evidence of anything beyond that, and I don’t think anyone seriously believes that what is in the public domain should disqualify Pete from serving in the cabinet. I don’t think there are four Republican senators willing to buck Trump on an important nomination. Senators like Joni Ernst have expressed caution, but I can’t see her–or any other Republicans other than Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins–actually voting Hegseth down. So I am optimistic that he will be confirmed. https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/hegseth-on-track.php

There is already a current thread.

Will other Democrats follow Fetterman's lead? Probably not. We’re definitely not saying Fetterman and Musk will become best friends either, but it is refreshing to hear a Democrat say someone from the MAGA side of the aisle is not an enemy. https://twitchy.com/warren-squire/2024/12/06/fetterman-open-to-working-with-elon-musk-ands-vivek-n2404747

Biden White House considering pre-emptive pardon for retired Gen. Mark Milley who made secret phone calls to China: report by Victor Nava Senior White House officials are reportedly considering issuing retired Gen. Mark Milley a pre-emptive pardon over fears that President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will go after the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The potential pardon for Milley, who was the nation’s highest-ranking military officer for part of Trump’s first term, was reported by the Washington Post Thursday. Milley, 66, faced intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill during President Biden’s first year in office after journalist Bob Woodward revealed that the Pentagon official placed secret phone calls to a top Chinese official before the 2020 election and after the Jan. 6. 2021, riot at the US Capitol. https://nypost.com/2024/12/06/us-news/biden-white-house-considering-pre-emptive-pardon-for-retired-general-who-made-secret-phone-calls-to-china-report/