Is Trump Moving To Focus Counter-Terrorism Solely On Islamists?

As San Fransisco looks to do away with cooperating with the FBI on counter terrorism programs, ones which were fine during the Obama years (oh, and let’s not forget the rioting, arson, and violence because someone wanted to speak), the Trump administration is supposedly going a different direction, per Reuters

Exclusive: Trump to focus counter-extremism program solely on Islam – sources

The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.

Such a change would reflect Trump’s election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase “radical Islam” in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.

I actually disagree with this a little. The focus shouldn’t be solely on radical Islam, because there are other domestic threats from non-Islamist groups and individuals, including both left and right leaning groups. But, mostly leftists. That said, we have federal and state governmental units that handle the non-Islamist groups, so, perhaps there needs to be a strong focus on radical Islam. As more and more are radicalized via the Internet, in mosques and Islamic schools, their friends, etc, those some people can easily jump into violent attacks.

It’s also long past due to name the danger. The Trump administration should go to great pains to note that there is a difference between Muslims and Islamists, much as most anti-jihad bloggers have done. Try and separate the two, making sure people understand that the extremists are the issue.

Read: Is Trump Moving To Focus Counter-Terrorism Solely On Islamists? »

Michael “Robust Debate” Mann Calls For Rebellion

Michael Mann, who has previously called for robust debate, as long as the debate is one sided (he will block you in a heartbeat on Twitter), is pretty upset about climate denial not being dead

The era of climate change denial is over. Rejection of the unequivocal scientific evidence that carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are warming the planet and changing our climate is no longer socially acceptable. Only the most fringe of politicians now disputes the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is real and human-caused, and they are largely ignored.

So why dignify the notion of climate change denial by writing about it?

If it’s over, then why are there so many who refuse to buy into anthropogenic climate change, and why are there so few Warmists who actually practice what they preach?

Such was the criticism I received from many well-meaning fellow climate scientists last fall after I published my latest book, “The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy,” co-authored with Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles.

Oh, right, he has a book to pimp.

We scientists are, in general, a reticent lot who would much rather spend our time in the lab, out in the field, teaching and doing research. It is only the most unusual of circumstances that gets us marching in the streets. Trump’s assault on science is just such a circumstance. And we are seeing a rebellion continue to mount.

A rebellion!

What are they really rebelling against? Seeing their flow of taxpayer money shut off, which would mean they’d have to go work in the private sector where people expect results.

Read: Michael “Robust Debate” Mann Calls For Rebellion »

Disgraceful: NY Times Attempts To Blame Trump For Yemen Raid Deaths

During the Obama regime’s eight years, there have been numerous occasions where US military personnel lost their lives, and foreign civilians were killed. There were more military deaths in Afghanistan under Obama than under Bush, after Obama did his surge. For the most part, the major news media outlets were silent on this all. There was no condemnation. No blaming. The closest they came to it was when Anwar al-Awlaki was whacked by drone strike, and the minor chiding was due to him being an American citizen. Did any caterwaul that a follow up strike killed his 16 year old son? Did you even know that occurred? It wasn’t broadcast breathlessly like had Bush been president.

For the most part, Conservatives understand that military and civilian causalities will occur during operations, and most will have approved of Obama’s attacks on extremist Islamists and the Islamist groups. Liberals were mostly silent. They certainly weren’t going to Blame Obama. Suddenly, though, a Republican is in the White House, so we get this disgraceful, utterly partisan shlock

Raid in Yemen: Risky From the Start and Costly in the End

Just five days after taking office, over dinner with his newly installed secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, President Trump was presented with the first of what will be many life-or-death decisions: whether to approve a commando raid that risked the lives of American Special Operations forces and foreign civilians alike.

President Barack Obama’s national security aides had reviewed the plans for a risky attack on a small, heavily guarded brick home of a senior Qaeda collaborator in a mountainous village in a remote part of central Yemen. But Mr. Obama did not act because the Pentagon wanted to launch the attack on a moonless night and the next one would come after his term had ended.

So, an Obama planned raid. That’s not to assign blame, just to note that it started at that point, as the NY Times attempts to assign blame to Trump

As it turned out, almost everything that could go wrong did. And on Wednesday, Mr. Trump flew to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to be present as the body of the American commando killed in the raid was returned home, the first military death on the new commander in chief’s watch.

The death of Chief Petty Officer William Owens came after a chain of mishaps and misjudgments that plunged the elite commandos into a ferocious 50-minute firefight that also left three others wounded and a $75 million aircraft deliberately destroyed. There are allegations — which the Pentagon acknowledged on Wednesday night are most likely correct — that the mission also killed several civilians, including some children. The dead include, by the account of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Qaeda leader who was killed in a targeted drone strike in 2011.

Suddenly, civilian deaths are important again

But the mission’s casualties raise doubts about the months of detailed planning that went into the operation during the Obama administration and whether the right questions were raised before its approval. Typically, the president’s advisers lay out the risks, but Pentagon officials declined to characterize any discussions with Mr. Trump.

In other words, the NY Times is wondering if Trump approved the operation too soon and without asking questions.

We further read about the operation being “jinxed from the start”, that the mission had been compromised, that surprise was lost. That an Osprey called in for support was damaged, and the $75 million aircraft had to be destroyed (suddenly, money matters in Liberal Land). Yemeni government officials are “seething”, Yemeni human rights groups (an oxymoron) are mad, and suddenly, photos of the strike were being obtained and published by the news media after 8 years of minimizing Obama attacks.

You can feel the tone, and that’s “Let’s Blame Trump.” And the news media wonders why it has lost credibility when it comes out with partisan trash like this.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Disgraceful: NY Times Attempts To Blame Trump For Yemen Raid Deaths »

San Francisco Sues To Be Allowed To Continue Breaking Federal Law

Remember when Democrats, including then President Obama, made a huge stink about Arizona’s illegal immigration law, SB1070, saying that states must follow federal law to the tee, not even allowing the laws to (supposedly) be stronger? Well, what of when cities refuse to follow federal law? California itself is considering becoming a sanctuary state (Trump should tell all illegals to head to California, and let the state deal with the resulting fallout), but, here’s what San Francisco is doing

(SF Chronicle)  San Francisco’s widespread resistance to President Donald Trump broadened from protests in the streets to inside a courthouse Tuesday.

Staying true to San Francisco’s vow to counter the president at every step of the way, City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit Tuesday to strike down Trump’s executive order to strip sanctuary cities of federal funding if they do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

The federal lawsuit, the first filed by a U.S. city over Trump’s sanctuary city executive order, comes as The City braces for potential funding cuts as it relies on $1.2 billion annually in federal funding for a range of services.

“The president’s executive order is not only unconstitutional, it is un-American,” Herrera said during a Tuesday morning news conference where he was joined by Mayor Ed Lee.

Can you guess what’s missing? Anything that states exactly why Trump’s order is unconstitutional. As far as un-American, San Francisco is one of the last cities to complain, coming right after Berkeley. The flag burnings, the military hatred, oh, and isn’t part of being American to follow the law?

Herrera has asked the court to halt the implementation of the executive order, invalidate the federal law section 1373 itself and affirm that San Francisco’s sanctuary laws comply with federal law.

Quick, illegals, go to San Francisco.

Seriously, isn’t it great that elected officials put the lives and welfare of those who are unlawfully present in this country over those of legal citizens and residents?

Read: San Francisco Sues To Be Allowed To Continue Breaking Federal Law »

If All You See…

…is heat created snow from carbon pollution, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The H2, with a post on when bunnies attack.

Read: If All You See… »

Warmists Very Upset That Judge Says ‘Climate Change’ Is A Matter Of Debate

And, by upset, I mean apoplectic

(UK Guardian) A Washington state judge has sparked outrage for remarks questioning the existence of climate change and the role of humans in global warming.

During the high-profile trial of Ken Ward, a climate activist facing 30 years in prison for shutting down an oil pipeline, Judge Michael E Rickert said: “I don’t know what everybody’s beliefs are on [climate change], but I know that there’s tremendous controversy over the fact whether it even exists. And even if people believe that it does or it doesn’t, the extent of what we’re doing to ourselves and our climate and our planet, there’s great controversy over that.”

The Skagit County judge made the comments on 24 January while addressing Ward’s request to present a “necessity defense” in court, meaning he would argue that the grave threat of climate change justified civil disobedience.

Well, really, when aren’t they upset and carrying on like a 5 year told he/she can’t have a cookie?

Rickert’s controversial statements, along with his decision to block Ward from arguing that his pipeline protest was necessary to prevent harm to the planet, angered environmentalists who insist that American courts have an obligation to recognize the science and consensus among researchers about man-made climate change.

“I thought it was shocking and deeply worrisome for my case,” said Ward, 60, of Corbett, Oregon, who temporarily shut off the safety valve of the TransMountain pipeline in Skagit County. “We are in the late stages of global collapse, and to have someone who is presumably as knowledgeable and aware as a judge should be blithely dismissing the biggest problem facing the world is chilling.”

Global collapse!

Ward admits he intentionally broke the law. Eric Worrall notes, in regards to the “necessity defense”

Even if climate change is as serious a threat as Ken Ward believes, his actions likely endangered lives, rather than preventing imminent loss of life. A close family relative used to work in an oil refinery, my understanding is abruptly closing the emergency shutdown valve on an oil pipeline can cause the pipe to rupture, which can lead to life threatening fires and other serious consequences.

BTW, didn’t Ward and his compatriots take fossil fueled vehicles to their little law breaking and creating a danger to other people demonstration?

Read: Warmists Very Upset That Judge Says ‘Climate Change’ Is A Matter Of Debate »

Suddenly, The NY Times Has A Big Problem With Using A Pen And A Phone

Barack Obama long ruled with his pen and phone, though, really, he rarely picked up the phone to talk to anyone in the duly elected Legislative Branch, even the people in his own party. It was a long streak of executive orders, rule making, and regulations. He rarely attempted to work with Congress. Did the Media Industrial Complex, especially the NY Times, call him out on this? Of course not. But, now, they’re super upset, and we end up with this

The subhead for the article is even more fun

On the edge!!!!! Bypassing federal agency and congressional input! OK, in fairness, Obama didn’t always bypass federal agencies: he had like minded individuals working there who would help push his agenda.

So this is where we are, just under two weeks into the presidency of a man who has never had to report to a boss or a board, who likes to imagine he gives all the orders, who fires or sues those who complain:

Wait, what? Never had to report? Now they have a problem with this? Really? BTW, where were the complaints on the last when Obama got rid of General Stanley McChrystal?

An acting attorney general, Sally Yates, fired and accused of betrayal because she told her Justice Department subordinates not to defend President Trump’s order closing the nation’s borders to more than 200 million legitimate foreign travelers, because it targets Muslims.

Trump’s running the Executive Office like a corporation, and, if you defy the leadership, you’ll be on the street. Even many Republicans seems shocked that Trump is putting his stamp on the Executive Office in this manner this much. But, when is the best time to do it? From the get-go.

And all across the government, in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and even the Interior Department, a universe of federal employees rattled by directives on regulations and hiring, shaken by rumors of cuts in basic science involving energy, health and climate change, and wondering where the next edict will come from.

Well, they can always go work in the private sector.

Mr. Trump’s supporters thrill to see him pumping out executive orders and memorandums aimed at turning his campaign pledges into action — building a wall, killing trade deals, gutting Obamacare and barring Muslim refugees. Yet in doing so he has not only flouted traditional policy-making machinery but, in some cases, opened the way for legal challenges.

So, wait, they’re upset that Donald Trump is doing what he promised? Are they more upset over that or that Trump is, again, shifting the Way Things Work to resemble, as much as possible, a private sector corporation? If Trump could enforce this type of mentality on the Executive Branch and the federal agencies, it would last long beyond his time in office.

And, we can expect the NY Times and the rest of the Credentialed Media to have snit fits over Trump using his pen and phone.

Read: Suddenly, The NY Times Has A Big Problem With Using A Pen And A Phone »

Neil Gorsuch Might Be Bad For ‘Climate Change’ Because His Mother Tried To Kill The EPA Or Something

So, Mr. Trump has picked Neil Gorsuch as his Supreme Court nominee. We can be assured that Democrats will give him a fair shake caterwaul and carry on to the point Mitch McConnell implements the nuclear option. We already have Nancy Pelosi saying that he’s a “very hostile appointment.” I wonder if she realizes her vote is meaningless?

Democrats already had their pre-printed “grassroots” signs made, and ABC News rushed to print the DNC’s talking points. On thing that might concern is that Neal K. Katyal, an acting solicitor general in the Obama admin, says that Liberals should back Gorsuch.

…he brings a sense of fairness and decency to the job, and a temperament that suits the nation’s highest court.

I have no doubt that if confirmed, Judge Gorsuch would help to restore confidence in the rule of law.

Well, those are antithetical to the beliefs of Liberals, so, maybe not so great for him. But, hey, don’t worry that the NY Times printed the op-ed, because the Editorial Board is being totally calm and rational

Neil Gorsuch, the Nominee for a Stolen Seat

Or not. The butthurt is strong. And David Leonhardt provides the reason Liberals should oppose him. Salon goes Salon by noting Gorsuch is GASP pro-life.

But, you know what’s worse?

Remember that time when Neil Gorsuch’s mother tried to dismantle the EPA?

Anne Gorsuch — whose son has just been nominated by President Trump for the Supreme Court — was administrator of the EPA from 1981 to 1983, under Ronald Reagan. And much like Scott Pruitt, Trump’s EPA nominee, she wanted to rip the agency apart.

Anne Gorsuch slashed EPA’s budget by 22 percent and aggressively rolled back clean air and clean water rules and other protections. A lawyer herself, she apparently did not like to see the legal system used to protect the environment: “In the first year of the Reagan administration, there was a 79 percent decline in the number of enforcement cases filed from regional offices to EPA headquarters, and a 69 percent decline in the number of cases filed from the EPA to the Department of Justice,” a House staffer told Grist in 2004. Anne Gorsuch resigned less than two years into the job over a scandal involving mismanagement of the Superfund program.

Like mother, like son? During his decade as a federal appeals court judge, Neil Gorsuch has not ruled on notable environmental cases, so he doesn’t have much of a track record to assess. He is a staunch conservative like his mom, though, and that’s enough to have environmentalists very worried.

Obviously, he’s a bee and polar bear hater in waiting, a guy who wants to cover the world in fossil fuels and coal, causing the seas to cover all the land. The is being repeated around the Left-o-net, by places such as Salon’s baby transgender Slate, Yahoo News, and Heavy, among others. Heavy also notes

Many are worried about Neil Gorsuch’s views on environmentalism and clean energy. As President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace former Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, his viewpoints could make a big difference in the future of clean energy. Some are concerned that his opinions might echo those of his mother, Anne Gorsuch Burford. However, at least one of his rulings may bode well for environmentalists.

Here’s what you need to know.

A ruling from 2015 in Colorado might show that Gorsuch could be favorable toward environmental laws. In 2015, on a three-judge panel, Gorsuch affirmed that Colorado’s renewable energy law would remain in place and did not violate the Constitution. The law required that utilities get 30 percent of the electricity they sell to Colorado customers from renewable resources. The plaintiff had advocated for a free market approach to environmentalism and argued that the law violated the Commerce Clause and unfairly hurt out-of-state businesses, such as coal producers.

The big takeaway on that ruling?

He also noted that even if the law raised electricity prices, Colorado residents had voted overwhelmingly in support of the mandate, so they apparently were “happy to bear” the higher costs. Think Progress touted the ruling as a win for all environmental groups who wanted to promote renewable energy in Colorado. Conservation Colorado said in a statement about the ruling:

So, he’s willing to let Warmists be hoist on their own petard. Good, good.

Inverse whined about his mother a week a go, being the first that I can find to do so. They are also Very Concerned that he is a man of faith. But, then, Liberals are always concerned when people have a moral bedrock. At CNN we see

Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said that Gorsuch would do nothing to preserve environmental regulations needed to fight climate change.

“There is no evidence in Gorsuch’s track record that indicates he would be a champion for these legal protections,” she said.

There’s virtually no evidence in his track record that he isn’t. He has almost no rulings. But, that’s of little consequence in Liberal World, where they would block anyone Trump picked. He could have picked Merritt Garland and Democrats would be against.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Neil Gorsuch Might Be Bad For ‘Climate Change’ Because His Mother Tried To Kill The EPA Or Something »

When It Comes To Canadian Mosque Shooting, The Whole Country Is To Blame Or Something

Now, look, it appears as if the alleged mosque shooter, Alexandre Bissonnette, is a beyond right wing nutjob, at least from early indications. They are, of course, trying to tie him into Trump and Marine Le-Pen, but, here’s the real fun one from the NY Times, as Haroon Siddiqui attempts to blame all Canadians

The Bigotry That Armed the Quebec Mosque Attacker

An incurably optimistic Canadian, I long believed that Canada would be immune to anti-Muslim hysteria. I was mistaken. This attack has been a long time coming.

The first inkling came after Sept. 11. Until then, I was just another Canadian journalist. After that, I was seen only as a Muslim, my identity reduced to my religion. The confusion, or deliberate conflation, of terrorist extremists with ordinary, law-abiding Muslims meant laying a collective guilt on all Muslims.

“What do you, Siddiqui, have to say about this or that horrible act of terrorism?” It was as if I were personally responsible.

Siddiqui goes on and on and on, ending with

I remain an incurably optimistic Canadian, and I want to believe that Canada is still not the United States. But as Sunday’s attack showed, we face the challenge of undoing the damage of years of suspicion and bigotry.

See? It’s the fault of every Canadian! When it’s a Muslim attacker, well, they’re just a lone wolf/wolvesz, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Islam in the least! You can’t even say that these people are radicals, extremists, in an attempt to separate them from the rest of Muslims. Nope. Nothing to do with Islam, even as they scream Allahu Ackbar. You aren’t allowed to make any generalization.

If only these same people, and the politically correct politicians, and the Credentialed Media, had the same concern for the people killed and harmed by Muslim terrorist attacks. Which, interestingly, tend to kill and harm more Muslims than westerners.

Read: When It Comes To Canadian Mosque Shooting, The Whole Country Is To Blame Or Something »

If All You See…

…is an evil plastic water bottle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is A View From The Beach, with a post on country mice vs city mice.

BTW, regardless of ‘climate change,’ you should still recycle for the environment.

Read: If All You See… »

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