There was a boatload of non-federal-Government-staffing-decisions news this week, and I’m still catching up on it.
One of the bigger items: The federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas’ “sanctuary cities” ban:
Texas law is clear: “The Texas Constitution prohibits a city from acting in a manner inconsistent with the general laws of the state. Thus, the legislature may, by general law, withdraw a particular subject from a home rule city’s domain.”
Snip.
The plaintiffs have not made a showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of their constitutional claims except as to the enforcement of Tex. Gov’t Code § 752.053(a)(1)’s “endorse” provision against elected officials. The foregoing discussion demonstrates there is no merit in their remaining arguments, and none of the other challenged provisions of SB4 facially violate the Constitution. Accordingly, we AFFIRM in part the district court’s preliminary injunction, VACATE in large part and remand with instructions to DISMISS the vacated injunction provisions.
Now let’s see if we can just get those Democratic Party enclaves to obey the ruling…
Last week I had to put Jigsaw, my loyal dog of 13+ years, to sleep due to cancer. He was a good boy and I miss him very, very much, but life goes on.
Anyway, I hope you’re having a better week…
I tried to Tweet out a link to this Daily Signal piece on “8 Stubborn Facts on Gun Violence in America”…when I discovered that I couldn’t.
Twitter has once again decided that there’s information its users should not be allowed to share.
Try it yourself, and see if the secret block has been lifted or not.
In the meantime, here are the eight points in the article, each backed up with supporting data:
Read the whole thing.
Edited to add: I can now tweet this link from my home computer…but I still can’t post it from my iPhone.
The latest Muslim-run child sex ring in the UK is bigger than Rotherham:
The Sunday Mirror blew open ANOTHER child sex abuse ring in Britain. This 18-month investigation found up to 1,000 girls, as young as 11, raped, sold for sex, and even killed for over 40 years in Telford, located 146 miles southeast of London.
The Mirror reported:
Police conducted an inquiry into child prostitution called Operation Chalice, which led to imprisonment of seven men in 2013. A report from the local Telford and Wreckin Council that same year said that “[F]rom the late 1990s professionals had concerns about the nature of some of the child sexual abuse cases presented to them.” Nothing happened, though, due to “existing procedures” and “understanding and learning at that time.”
But people told the authorities about the abuse decades before Chalice. The Mirror found out that two pedophiles started “targeting girls at a local children’s home in 1981.” One of those “abusers earned thousands a night for years trafficking girls around the country for sex with hundreds of men, according to one victim.”
The publication spoke to 12 victims who “accused more than 70 abusers and claimed that violent rapes were still taking place just months ago.” The Mirror continued:
One 14-year-old, groomed and abused after her phone number was sold to paedophiles, said: “I hated what was happening and my abusers made my skin crawl but I was told that if I said a word to anyone they’d come for my little sisters and tell my mum I was a prostitute.
“Night after night, I was forced to have sex with multiple men in disgusting takeaways and filthy houses.
“I must have been getting the morning after pill from a local clinic at least twice a week but no one asked any questions.
“I fell pregnant twice and had two abortions. Hours after my second termination, I was taken by one of my abusers to be raped by more men.
“The worst moment came just after my 16th birthday when I was drugged and gang raped by five men.”
It goes on in further nauseating detail.
Rotherham, Telford, Sheffield. All UK child sex rings run by Muslim men that police ignored for years or decades.
Almost like there’s a pattern…
So Rex Tillerson is is out as Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo is in.
Pompeo will have to be nominated and approved by the Senate before he can take Tillerson’s spot in the government. Republicans can approve anyone they want in the Senate as long as they stick together, and Pompeo was confirmed for his current post in a 66-32 vote.
“His experience in the military, Congress, and as leader of the CIA have prepared him well for his new role and I urge his swift confirmation,” Trump said in a statement Tuesday, as he wished Tillerson and his family well.
Vice President Mike Pence backed Trump and urged the Senate to confirm Pompeo, “a man of highest integrity with unquestionable qualifications who will do an outstanding job.”
There were notable foreign policy improvements under Tillerson (the crushing of the Islamic State, significant reform in Saudi Arabia, the embassy move to Jerusalem, arming Ukraine, pressuring North Korea to the negotiating table, etc.), but most were attributable to either President Trump’s unique style of negotiating, or the fact the idiots in the Obama Administration were no longer in charge.
I thought I was ambivalent about Tillerson’s exit, until I read this:
His profound disagreements with the president on policy appeared to be his undoing: Mr. Tillerson wanted to remain part of the Paris climate accord; Mr. Trump decided to leave it. Mr. Tillerson supported the continuation of the Iran nuclear deal; Mr. Trump loathed the deal as “an embarrassment to the United States.” And Mr. Tillerson believed in dialogue to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, but Mr. Trump repeatedly threatened military options.
Indeed, Tillerson’s efforts to save the asinine Iran Deal appear to be his undoing.
“President Trump has been clear that the Iran deal is terrible policy and has sought ways to hold Iran accountable,” DeSantis told the Free Beacon. “With Mike Pompeo, Trump will have a Secretary of State who sees the threat posed by the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] and by Tehran in a similar light as he does.”
Alrighty then. It’s best Tillerson was shown the door…
Some liberals are very, very upset that President Donald trump called Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters “low-IQ.”
Obviously, liberals instantly denounced President Trump as a “racist” (it’s what they do):
The President went to Pennsylvania, singled out a black Congresswoman from California, and called her stupid.
That’s not race-baiting. That’s racist.
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) March 11, 2018
This despite the fact that Rep. Waters
And here’s a “greatest hits” sampler of same:
Truth should be an absolute defense from charges of racism. The fact that Rep. Waters is a very dim bulb has nothing to do with her race or sex, or even her party. (The late Rep. Barbara Jordan, Democrat of Texas, was wrong about many things, but she was anything but dumb.)
But why go back and forth on the issue when there’s a simple, real-world way to resolve it?
It seems to be an article of faith among liberals that Rep. Waters is not, in fact, below average IQ.
It also seems to be an article of faith among liberals that President Donald Trump is a “dummy,” a “moron,” etc.
Therefore, I offer up a modest proposal: Let President Trump debate Rep. Waters in prime time, with an equal number of questions supplied by each of the participants.
It should soon become apparent to American voters who is dumber than who…
Greetings, refugees from the formerly great state of California! I hope you’re enjoying your new home in Real America!
Sometimes it can be hard to figure out how to act in new surroundings, so here’s are a few tips from Some Random Guy On Twitter:
Things Californians looking to emigrate to one of the Free States should know :
1. Everyone hates you, probably for good reason.
2. If you thought you’re “right wing” in CA, you’re probably centrist elsewhere.
3. Don’t try to change things in your new state.
— Human Bean Juice (@Jack0Spades) March 11, 2018
4. No, your new neighbors aren’t racists or Nazis. This is just how things are where people don’t lie to themselves all the time.
5. “Bless your heart” means you just did something very stupid. Try to not do it again.
6. Hold doors open for other people, especially women.
— Human Bean Juice (@Jack0Spades) March 11, 2018
7. Men pump gas. Don’t get caught making your wife do it.
— Human Bean Juice (@Jack0Spades) March 11, 2018
8. You will occasionally see someone with a gun. Don’t panic. This is normal with free people.
— Human Bean Juice (@Jack0Spades) March 11, 2018
(Filed under: Lazy blogging.)
Problem: Parents are worried about random school shootings.
Bill De Blasio’s Solution: Remove NYPD cops from schools:
The last NYPD cops assigned full-time to New York City public schools are being moved out — despite nationwide calls for heightened security in the wake of last month’s Florida shootings.
As the nation mourned the 17 victims of the school massacre at Parkland, Fla., the NYPD was removing Sgt. Raul Espinet from his post at Francis Lewis HS in Fresh Meadows, Queens — where he had worked for more than a dozen years. Parents, teachers and students are livid over the beloved cop’s departure.
“My colleagues think it’s outrageous — and really stupid,” teacher Arthur Goldstein said. “We’re not enthusiastic about arming teachers, but we liked having a cop around.”
Espinet’s position was eliminated because cops in Mayor de Blasio’s new community policing units will visit schools while patrolling the neighborhood, according to the NYPD. School safety agents are stationed at all schools, but are not armed.
The once-common practice of putting an armed cop in schools waned in the 1990s. All were gradually eliminated, but Francis Lewis, one of the biggest high schools, slipped by. Bayside and Benjamin Cardozo high schools also recently lost their full-time NYPD officers, according to parents.
Espinet is one of the last — if not the last — school cop to go.
“I’m not aware of any other school with a full-time police officer assigned to it,” said Lt. John Grimpel, an NYPD spokesman.
Parents at the overcrowded Queens school, crammed with more than 4,400 students, are protesting the change.
“The community officer is in no way an acceptable replacement,” says a PTA petition launched last week.
The PTA is demanding that the NYPD and city Department of Education bring back an armed cop to Francis Lewis. It has collected more than 1,000 signatures in just two days, according to co-president Linda Lovett.
“It’s ridiculous,” Lovett said. “All over the country they are telling you ‘arm the teachers, get an officer in your school.’ New York City had a designated officer and they are actually cutting the program . . . they are making us less secure.
“You are talking about 5,000 people in a one-block radius, and you’re telling me you can’t designate one officer?”
Cop were originally put into New York City schools not to prevent school shootings, but to curb the overall criminality of students that broke out in epidemic proportions in the 1960s, including one infamous incident where a student set a teacher on fire.
Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and De Blasio seems hellbent on repeating all the mistakes of sixties radicals.
(Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Yesterday I had to have Jigsaw, my 14-year old Golden Retriever, put to sleep due to cancer. There will be a blog post forthcoming on my other blog in a day or two. In the interim, instead of politics, here’s a video of Golden Retrievers playing.
OK, we’ll make it ever-so-slightly political. Here’s Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Golden Retriever Pancake getting a Christmas present and freaking out from happiness.
Love your doggies as much as you can while you can…