In the olden days, it was slavery. Today, it often takes the form of women or children being bought or sold for sexual purposes. In this particular instance, it’s the smuggling of illegal workers:

The death toll in what police called a horrific human trafficking case — eight men died inside a sweltering 18-wheeler parked outside a San Antonio Walmart — reached nine on Sunday…

A total of 39 people had been inside the tractor-trailer, including at least four teenagers, Fox 29 reported. Twenty people were taken to area hospitals in critical condition…

A store employee first alerted police after being approached by someone from the truck who was asking for water. The vehicle did not have a working air conditioning system…

The origin of the truck is still unknown. Investigators gathered evidence from the truck on Sunday, which had an Iowa license plate but no other markings.

Thomas Homan, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director, said in a statement: “By any standard, the horrific crime uncovered last night ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished.”

U.S. Attorney Richard Durbin, Jr. also called Sunday morning’s incident “an alien smuggling venture gone horribly wrong.”

“All were victims of ruthless human smugglers indifferent to the well-being of their fragile cargo,” Durbin said, adding that the Justice Department will be working with Homeland Security and local responders in the investigation…

Needless to say: Crime is crime. I know that we’re all 100% in favor of law enforcement cracking down on this and punishing whoever is responsible.

Hey Trump-haters: Did it ever occur to you that this is a reason (one of many) why we should want good border control?

A black New York Times reporter has accused white women of racism because, he says, they don’t “walk courteously” – that is, they walk with shoulder pads broadly-forward like he doesn’t exist, forcing him to move for them:

Greg Howard, a writer for the Sunday Metropolitan Section…added that there are times when he’s had to step off the sidewalk and into the road, making him ‘feel small’.

‘In seven years of living and walking here, I’ve found that most people walk courteously – but that white women, at least when I’m in their path, do not,’ Howard wrote.

‘Why only and specifically white women? Do they refuse to acknowledge me because they’ve been taught that they should fear black men, and that any acknowledgment of black men can invite danger?’

His original here. Several thoughts leap to mind.

• The fun of blue-on-blue accusations. A leftie man is on the street, arguably playing games of “chicken” using his Male Privilege Card. When some women don’t honor it, he calls them racist.
• The parochialism of New Yorkers. Most likely, it is -New York City- white women who won’t narrow their shoulders for Howard or notice his presence: precisely because New York City votes 82% for Hillary and the women are a little more likely to be aggressive, Hillary-style feminists. But Howard equates that to the world, blaming white women everywhere.
• The racism of lefties. Let’s say that Howard’s explanation has an element of truth. Then of course he would find it in New York City – again, because it’s such a left-leaning place. I have long noted how, in American history, it was the Democrat party who fought in favor of slavery and Jim Crow and the KKK, and how Margaret Sanger’s goal in founding Planned Parenthood was to abort black babies specifically, and how lefties see racism everywhere probably because many of them will start spewing racism if you get a few drinks in them.

We all know that UC-Berkeley refused to give a venue to Ben Shapiro because the fascist mob representing the Democrat Left would commit violence were a conservative allowed to speak on campus. (After the public outcry, university officals may be rethinking their stance.)

But did you also know that UC-Berkeley is refusing to allow uber-atheist Richard Dawkins to speak because he has criticized Islam? Specifically, he criticized the bigotry, homophobia, and misogyny of Islam.

It is interesting to know that in the eyes of progressives like these, some religions are more worthy of consideration than others. Islam, generally speaking, is vastly more illiberal than Christianity. Somehow, though, Islam falls under the protecting veil of progressivism.

But of course it does. “The future must not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam,” said one prominent Democrat leftist. And the Progressive Democrat Left agrees.

Tucker has it:

I thought the Left was against fat-shaming? But, there’s more. Tucker goes into something even lower: the media’s (and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-CA’s) efforts to sensationalize the fact that President Trump and Vladimir Putin talked at dinner last week during the G-20 meetings. With Louise Mensch literally calling for the death penalty.

In other News of Teh Crazy:

• Burn on Kurt Eichenwald. It’s a long story. Read it if you care. Basically, Newsweek settled a lawsuit that he had gotten them into with some Trumprussia-related smear of his.
• CNN keeps bringin’ the hysteria with a new series on the Russian sleeper-spy-next-door. Notably absent: CNN’s interest in the Chinese sleeper-spy-next-door, or the Muslim sleeper-terrorist-next-door.
• Remember the rumors of Obama considering martial law, if the election didn’t go as planned? (cough, Hillary win) It turns out there was something to it.

Some palate-clearing good news:

• Sarah Huckabee Sanders gets a well-earned promotion. Congratulations, Sarah!
• Yvonne Felarca gets a well-earned demotion. She’s been arrested for assault. Congratulations, Antifa!

This award-winning journalist is a “National Correspondent” for NBC News, hosts a weekly news show on MSDNC. (Hat Tip: Twitchy)

At the link, Caitlyn Jenner defends President Trump and expresses a belief in limited government and making the U.S. a better place to do business.

Of course I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I’m glad to see Jenner saying sensible political things to a left-leaning audience. On the other hand, I know that Jenner has willingly served as either a source, or at least a mascot, for some of the rather foolish Transgender Fever that has swept America in the last year or two.

As to transgenders in general: I’m glad when they stand up for their legitimate rights as any human should – for example, practicing self-defense skills with Pink Pistols – and, I’m not glad when adult biological men think they have a right to impose their brand of political correctness on others, take over girls’ bathrooms, etc.

Overall, file this one under “People Are Complex”.

In an article dripping with condescension, a precious Millennial Snowflake writing for Inc. Magazine is given the space to lecture the bigoted “older generation” on why Millennials — being smarter, more worldly, and more woke than their dottering elders — embrace political correctness.

The purpose of political correctness is to treat all people with the love and respect they deserve. This means calling people by the pronouns they use, and avoiding words and phrases that stereotype and demonize entire groups of people. You can still possess whatever ideology you follow and you can still share your opinion, you’re just being asked to do so in a way that is not hurtful to others.

OK, let’s game this out.

Millennial Snowflake: “We’re not censoring your speech, we’re just politely requesting that you use sensitive language.”

Me: “So, I’m still allowed to express any opinion I want as long as I use the PC words.”

MS: “Exactly, now you’re getting it, old man.”

Me: “Can I say that I think mass immigation from underdeveloped countries is bad for our economy and social cohesion.”

MS: “Oh, no. That’s problematic because it’s insensitive and demonizes immigrants.”

Me: “What if I say that being Transgendered is a mental illness that should be handled through therapy.”

MS: “No, that’s problematic because it otherizes the transgendered and encourages violence.”

Me: “Can I say that obesity causes health problems?”

MS. “No. Problematic. Body-Shaming.”

Me: “Can I say that our public welfare systems are fiscally unsustainable and socially irresponsible?”

MS: “No. Problematic. Poor-bashing.”

Me: “Well… what if I say it’s okay to engage in violence against those I deem racist because it’s okay to punch a Nazi.”

MS: “Sure, you can say that.”

Me: “But isn’t that advocating violence?”

MS: “No, silly older person, it’s just words.”

(more…)

President Trump has decided that the CIA will stop arming the so-called “moderate” (but really jihadist) Syrian rebels.

With the end of the CIA program, U.S. involvement in Syria now consists of a vigorous air campaign against the Islamic State and a Pentagon-run train-and-equip program in support of the largely Kurdish rebel force that is advancing on Islamic State strongholds in Raqqa and along the Euphrates River valley.

More on the Kurds in a moment. Trump’s move should help to maintain the Syria cease-fire, defeat ISIS and defuse Mideast tensions. In my view, it is as sensible as Obama’s original decision to arm the jihadis was not. Naturally, the U.S. Deep State – which wanted tensions (or even a Syria ground war) – hates the move and besmirches it as pro-Putin, “Russia won”, etc.

In news that is not so good, we’ve also had a flurry of items about the growing rift between Turkey and the West. Turkey remains a NATO ally, but Erdogan is on bad terms with the European Community, and it doesn’t help that the U.S. (or NATO) organized a failed coup against Erdogan in 2016.

• Turkey signed a $2.5 billion arms deal with Russia, choosing Russia’s version of missile defense over NATO’s.
• The deal comes amidst Germany blocking its arms exports to Turkey and Germany warnings its citizens not to travel there.
• Does the U.S. have outposts (or “bases”) among the Kurds of northern Syria? Why yes, and Turkey has leaked their locations.
• Turkey has started bombing the Syrian Kurds.

So, the Kurds would seem to be a major issue. Decades ago, Western powers drew the borders of Turkey, Syria and Iraq in such a way as to divide the Kurds. Ever since, they’ve dreamed of getting together in a new Kurdistan. That the U.S. would have armed the Syrian Kurds (starting under Obama), sets off alarm bells in Turkey.

The Anti-Defamation League published an article, From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate. Just one problem: The article is a disgrace. It may target some actual racists, but along the way, it smears several citizen-journalists who merely challenge the Left, believe in the West or in Christianity, and/or support President Trump.

Presumbably to avoid libel lawsuits, the ADL tries to distinguish between “Alt Right” and “Alt Lite”. It says “Alt Right” is about “overt racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, misogyny, and anti-Muslim bigotry”; while “Alt Lite” would only be about the “misogyny and xenophobia” part. But the false guilt-by-association is still there. And even the lesser charge of “misogyny and xenophobia” is a smear on some fine and ever-improving journalists.

Of the ADL’s “Alt Lite” list, I know the work of three fairly well, and none of them deserve the ADL’s smear-labeling: Jack Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, Milo Yiannopoulis.

If the ADL is zero-for-three on those whose work I do know, they are probably wrong on the others whom they listed in the “Alt Lite” section. (Note: I’m not defending anyone in the “Alt Right” section, none of whose work I know at all, except perhaps for Nathan Damigo whose organization I denounced, here.)

To take one example, Jack Posobiec is fluent in at least 2 foreign languages (Mandarin and Polish are the ones that I’ve seen him speak), and here he is at Auschwitz with his girlfriend, praying for the Holocaust victims:

So much for his supposed “misogyny and xenophobia”. Which, I can say, are not in his work either – except that he just happens to be a reasonable and articulate Trump supporter, pro-Israel Christian, and opponent of the Left.

It seems the Anti-Defamation League has itself become a hate group. They would rather defame good people than refute the statements or ideas that they disagree with. It’s sad to see a once-important organization fall so low.

I cannot do justice to this post by quoting any of it. You’ll have to read the whole thing. But the long and the short of it is, the Obama Justice Department and Blue State Democrats pursued policies to keep criminals out of jail and release them to prey on law-abiding citizens.

(30) The end result of Democratic “reform” is that criminals now commit crimes with impunity, and people are too afraid to call the cops.

(31) There are no penalties for threatening witnesses and skipping your trial. Nobody comes looking for you.

(32) And if you get arrested, they immediately release you.

Just for one example, here are some of the things California reclassified from violent felonies to non-violent misdemeanors, all in an effort to keep criminals out of jail.

So, long story short, in California, you can beat up a child, or drug and rape someone and those are considered non-violent misdemeanors. But the cops will come down on you like a dumptruck full of bricks if you try and sell flowers in front of a school without a permit.

Instead of jailing criminals, Democrats have started the approach of politely asking urban thugs not to commit murder on certain weekends. I am not making this us.

Organizers aim to stop the shooting from Friday, Aug. 4, through Sunday, Aug. 6, with a unified and blunt message: “Nobody kill anybody.” Their message has been printed on T-shirts and flyers. They designed a website and held community meetings. More than 1,600 people visited their Facebook page.

A website and a Facebook page, they must be super cereal.

Next month’s ceasefire would prove successful if it deters a single shooting, (an organizer)said. And she figures the movement has already saved a life somewhere. “Somebody was plotting on this weekend,” she said. “Now they’re not going to do it because of a rumbling in their soul.”

Hey, who needs crime statistics when you have a community organizer who can sense the souls of gang-bangers.

Senator John McCain was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. An eighty year old man requiring expensive treatment is something the architects of Obamacare thought was too expensive. In fact, Ezekiel Emmanuel (brother of Rahm Emmanuel and an Obamacare architect) is on record saying that providing medical care to anyone over the age of 75 was a waste of resources.

In left-wing countries with socialized health care that leftists adore, it is standard procedure to deny care to severely ill people in order to save money.  Rational? Perhaps, but not quite the selling point leftists use to advance the scheme of state-run health care.

On a related note, the left’s favorite fake scientist says that all old people should die so the Global Warming Agenda can be implemented without resistance.

Mother Jones has a lecture about how non-profit social justice organizations for LGBTs and racial minorities discriminate against… um… LGBT’s and racial minorities.

When it comes to professional advancement, even within explicitly LGBT-focused organizations, LGBT people of color face more challenges compared to their white counterparts or straight people of color.

In addition to the racial barriers faced by LGBT people of color, roughly 21% of LGBT respondents said that their sexual orientation had negatively affected their career advancement. They pointed to great disparities in LGBT non-discrimination laws in states across the country and reported levels of fear and frustration about the way anti-LGBT attitudes have affected their careers. The report noted the “intensity of the write-in responses… reflected a real problem with biases against LGBTQ people in too many nonprofits.”

So, leftists working for organizations whose entire raison d’etre is to kvetch about discrimination… kvetch about discrimination in the organizations they work for.

This is so delicious it must be fattening.

Thought for the Day: Trumprussia undermines the United States of America. And yet, day after day, really for a year now, with NO results to speak of, or even evidence for it, the Left keeps pushing it. Obsessively.

Why? Are the Left’s opinionmakers colluding with Russian intelligence, against America? Are George Soros, David Brock, CNN, MSNBC and the Clintons colluding with Vladimir Putin? Are the Russians laughing their asses off, when they see it? Cui bono?

UPDATE: A Trump vs. CNN meme (embedded below the fold, or just click on the link to the left): (more…)

Black, Mohammedan, immigrant cop shoots a white woman in Minneapolis. Washington Post covers the story while never once mentioning the cop is black, Mohammedan, or immigrant. (Not to mention, not much outrage over this police shooting. I guess not all lives matter.)

They do, however, make a pitch for Australian-style gun confiscation.

Same deal at Vox. 2000 word story, no discussion of the cop’s race, religion, or background. But again, another pitch for outlawing the private ownership of firearms.

This is a result of cultural and policy decisions made by the US that have made firearms far more available in America than most of the world. For American police officers, this means they not only will encounter more guns, but they expect to encounter more guns, making them more likely to anticipate and perceive a threat and use deadly force as a result.

Cops shooting people justifies disarming law-abiding civilian gun-owners. Ah, leftist logic.

The one and only Greg Gutfeld puts it all together:

The Dems used to root for the Russians against us when the USSR was deadly, and wanted us dead. And now, decades later, things are better, and the libs are finally seeing Red? Save me the outrage. The Russian story is the Left’s crack cocaine, and they won’t put down the pipe until there’s a New Dealer in the White House.

If you want it newsier: (more…)

Dimwit hipsters gathered in a DC Synagogue to discuss forming a religion based on Harry Potter. I am not making this up.

We are in a culture war. The left has been deploying full arsenal… lies, deceit, attacks, and more recently actual violence… while the right has played nice. Evan Sayet explains why nice ain’t cutting it any more.

We Right-thinking people have tried dignity. There could not have been a man of more quiet dignity than George W. Bush as he suffered the outrageous lies and politically motivated hatreds that undermined his presidency. We tried statesmanship. Could there be another human being on this earth who so desperately prized “collegiality” as John McCain? We tried propriety – has there been a nicer human being ever than Mitt Romney? And the results were always the same.

So, to my friends on the Left – and the #NeverTrumpers as well — do I wish we lived in a time when our president could be “collegial” and “dignified” and “proper”? Of course I do. These aren’t those times. This is war. And it’s a war that the Left has been fighting without opposition for the past 50 years.
So, say anything you want about this president – I get it, he can be vulgar, he can be crude, he can be undignified at times. I don’t care. I can’t spare this man. He fights.

It’s like I have been saying, before you attack Donald Trump and the “alt-right,” consider what the GOP Establishment and the old right have accomplished in the last 20 years. They got us into wars they never intended to win and spent money they never intended to pay back. Meanwhile, the radical left took over the media, the schools, the bureaucracy and the courts. It doesn’t matter whether the Republicans were collaborating with the radical left or merely wimping out to them; the result was the same.

Our only option to preserve liberty is to fight back. It is sad that it has come to this.

Mark Steyn agrees with me, the only reason the left has to remake classic white male characters into trendy new genders and races is because the left utterly lacks the creativity to create new compelling characters.

I do regard this sort of thing as, to coin a phrase, cultural appropriation – in the sense that what our age mostly does is appropriate the cultural creations of greater talents and make them into something other. The Mighty Thor becomes a woman, Spider-Man turns Afro-Hispanic, Green Lantern goes gay; even in the Archie comics, Archie dies taking a bullet for his gay best friend, and Jughead comes out as asexual.

The clever thing is to create Archie (as Vic Bloom and Bob Montana did in 1941) and Captain America and Iceman, and turning them into modular furniture to be repositioned round the room at will – now female, now gay, now Hispanic – is an achievement of a considerably lesser order. As Brendan O’Neill points out, it’s also shallow – although very suited to an age in which Facebook offers you a choice of 50 gender identities.

And when the ratings tank, they’ll blame misogyny. It almost makes you think the writers are building a cushion to excuse poor performance. Blaming the prejudices of the audience is easier than admitting you’re a hack.

Is “Out Magazine” the home of depressed, dour scolds? They’ve been popping that way lately, but you be the judge.

First, they laid it on thick about Milo’s supposed low book sales:

Nobody is Buying Milo Yiannopoulos’ Memoir, Dangerous…

In today’s fake news, alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is claiming his book, Dangerous, has sold more than 100,000 copies.

The problem with that number is that it’s not real. Nielsen Bookscan, which monitors book sales through almost all outlets, has reported book sales for the former Breitbart editor are much, much lower. Since launching on July 4, Dangerous has sold 18,268 copies in the US and 152 in the UK…

A google search shows other left-wing outlets, like Salon and The Guardian, joining in the schadenfreude.

The problem is, their numbers are shaky. Milo is selling fine. He’s entering the best-seller lists at anywhere from #5 to #1; the first 100k run is spoken for and they’re printing more; Amazon has to ship his book slow (when they even have it). As to the 152 UK copies, the book isn’t even on sale there; a minimum of 152 UK buyers paid for international shipping. Fake News, indeed.

Next, via Breitbart, Out Magazine Encourages Readers to ‘Drop’ Gay Republican Friends

“We drop friends all the time for a whole variety of reasons—they messed with our loves lives, they lied, they weren’t supportive—so why do some people think it’s such an outlandish idea to dump them for their political views?” asked actor, singer, and writer Michael Musto in his column for OUT Magazine…

Musto goes on to admit that his social media experience has been more “gratifying” since he’s decided to block any user who disagrees with him…

Here’s a clue for you, Out: By all means, drop us. Here on the liberty-loving Right, we do believe in freedom of association – and we won’t miss you in the least 😉