Hollywood stars Chris Pratt and John Krasinski are encouraging Americans to take the Murph Challenge as a personal way to honor our military and its members past, present, and future.
The actors each posted a video to their respective social media accounts telling fans they would be completing the Murph Challenge and encouraging America to join them.
The Murph Challenge is a intense exercise routine created to honor U.S. Navy SEAL LT. Michael Murphy who designed the workout while on deployment. Murphy was killed in combat and posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his bravery.
Wearing a Murph T-Shirt and hat, Krasinski, star and director of A Quiet Place, posted his video featuring his trainer, Don Saladino, and telling fans to “Take a moment of your day Monday to say thank you to the brave men and women who laid down their lives for all of us.”
“Thank you to Lt. Michael P Murphy and the millions of soldiers who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We live this life because you laid down yours, gratitude and prayers for all of you,” Pratt said.
Also wearing a Muprh T-Shirt, Pratt recorded his video at the Unbreakable Gym in Los Angeles.
“We got a big group of people doing The Murph Challenge this year to celebrate Memorial Day and to memorialize our fallen heroes especially Lieutenant Michael Murphy,” Pratt said.
On his Twitter account, Pratt also noted that if his followers purchased a Murph T-Shirt and posted a photo of themselves doing the Murph Challenge, he would re-tweet their post.
The workout starts with a one-mile run, then proceeds to 100 pull-ups, then 200 pushups and 300 squats, and concludes with a second one-mile run.
Ben Carson’s Housing and Urban Development (HUD) agency is taking journalists back to school after the establishment media described his May 22 plan to restore women’s privacy rights as a crude threat to “segregate” and “roll back” protections for people who want to live as members of the opposite sex.
“We are offering you some background,” said a May 23 reply by the agency to journalists. “It is HUD’s belief that shelters should be able to decide for themselves how to define sex consistent with state and local law. At the same time, equal treatment of all persons — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity — is a clear requirement.”
“It really just flies against the great common understanding that exists everywhere outside some ivory towers [for the government] to say that Americans really don’t know how to decide if someone is a man or a woman,” a senior HUD official told Breitbart News. The official continued:
The Hollywood version of people having an inspiration and determining their inner self is something other than their chromosomes are, is –at best — a very rare and infrequent event, and that is not something that should be forced onto the American public and particularly in a way that is broadly viewed as potentially harmful to some of the most victimized people in our society, who are abused women …
All we intend to do is to say [to shelter operators] is that you need to have a policy about this and be consistent about it … but we are not going to force [the transgender] social ideology on you …
The agency announced the policy on May 22, and reporters at establishment media sites immediately went negative, by portraying Carson’s restoration of women’s rights as a threat to transgender people who want to live as members of the opposite sex.
Tracy Jan at the Washington Postclaimed the rule “would weaken Obama-era protections for homeless transgender people, allowing federally funded shelters to deny people admission on religious grounds or force transgender women to share bathrooms and sleeping quarters with men.”
Katy O’Donnell at Politicosaid the agency “is moving to roll back protections for homeless transgender people by enabling HUD-funded providers of shelters to consider a person’s sex or gender identification in determining whether they can be admitted.”
Trump & HUD chief Ben Carson restore women’s privacy rights in gov’t shelters. Obama’s transgender ideology ended women’s rights by req’ing officials to put men ‘with a female gender identity’ in women’s bed/bathrooms. So now Carson OK’s single-sex rooms. https://t.co/TvCuTUlLXe
But this gender vs. biology problem was created by officials working for former President Barack Obama.
In several steps, Obama’s deputies gradually ordered managers at taxpayer-funded shelters to gag their own judgment about the sex of any person seeking to stay at their shelters. Obama’s deputies directed the managers to comply with the “Gender Ideology” and treat a male as a woman if the male claims to have the “gender identity” of a woman. If made law, this ideology would effectively outlaw the public’s recognition that the two sexes are different and complementary.
Obama’s declaration that “gender identity” has legal supremacy over obvious biology means managers now cannot exclude a man who says he is a woman from sleeping in the women’s quarters or from using showers reserved for women — even if the man is dressed as a man, and shows no evidence of sex-related surgery. If the managers refuse to agree the man is a woman, Obama’s “Equal Access Rule” says they will lose their funding, and likely their jobs.
Democrats have become so ‘progressive’ they’re ditching women in favor of transgender voters, who comprise maybe 0.3 percent of voters. So now GOP leaders get an opportunity to show they are defending rights & status for actual women. Will they use it? https://t.co/EeRq3hsFlt
Under the Obama rule, the winners are the men whose claims to be female are validated by the shelter managers complying with government pressure.
The losers from Obama’s rule are the gagged managers who cannot use their judgment — and also the homeless women who lose their privacy rights when they are forced into intimate spaces with men. The discrimination is especially harsh against homeless women who have had been injured by spouses or other men.
The May 23 “What You Need To Know” press statement from the agency highlighted two cases:
… in Fresno, California nine women filed a lawsuit against Naomi’s House, a homeless shelter that receives HUD funding. These women alleged that the shelter enabled sexual harassment against them by allowing a biological male who identified as a female to enter the homeless shelter. The biological male showered with the females, where the individual would “repeatedly make lewd and sexually inappropriate comments to some of the Plaintiffs,” and “stare and leer at the Plaintiffs while naked and make sexually harassing comments about their bodies.” In its defense, the shelter alleged that it was required to admit the biological male because a person self- identified as a female, and HUD’s 2016 rule did not give the shelter flexibility to allow for different treatment.
…
… the Hope Center in Anchorage, Alaska, a faith-based women’s shelter, filed a federal lawsuit challenging a local law that would require them to serve biological males who identify as females. The Hope Center argues that the local law violates their religious beliefs, including their mission. While this case does not involve HUD directly, it is raises important religious liberty concerns that HUD’s 2016 rule raises. If HUD’s 2016 is not changed to allow for greater local flexibility, HUD-funded faith-based shelters like the Hope Center will be at risk of losing their federal funding.
So Carson’s promised regulation make a few small but critical changes.
His rule will continue to bar any discrimination against sexual minorities, but it will allow shelter managers — many of whom are women — to use their own judgment when deciding who can be allowed to use a single-sex shelter, a shared bedroom or a communal shower room.
But this decent delegation of routine judgment turns about to be a huge political thing.
It is huge because it means that the government is formally rejecting the central demand of the transgender ideology — the principle that “gender identity” trumps two-sex biology at all times, in all places, for all people.
“The current … equal access rule would say that [identity trumps biology], and we believe that position is wholly unsupported by anything in law and was made as part of the world view of the prior administration,” the HUD official said.
That huge political conflict was ignored by establishment reporters as they spotlighted complaints by transgender advocates.
Rachel Frazin at the Hillsaid, “Advocates say that a Trump administration proposal unveiled Wednesday would gut protections for homeless transgender people.”
Brian Pascus at CBS News reported, “The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced a new rule proposal on Wednesday that would roll back Obama-era protections for transgender people living in homeless shelters.”
Tim Fitzsimons at NBC News reported, “The department published a proposed rule change that would allow men’s and women’s shelters to segregate transgender people ‘consistent with state and local law.’”
The ideological claim that gender trumps biology is too important for regulators to decide, the official said.
“We believe that is not the view that the vast majority of Americans would have … if transgender advocates believe that their [gender beats sex] position is correct, that is a matter to be determined through the democratic process. Congress could decide [at the federal level, and] what New York City decides its rule should be may be very different from what Texas decides its rule should be,” the official said.
The transgender principle of flexible identity is also a threat to the idea of civil rights, the official said:
If you take [self-decided ‘gender identity’] as being something that can be accepted, why can’t we say “I’m an English-German American — what prevents me from saying ‘I’m identifying as Asian?’ Or, “Even though I have never been in Buddhist temple, I identify as a Buddhist.” The world falls apart if we have to accept unsubstantiated assertions.
Civil rights laws protect immutable characteristics, the official said. But the transgender ideology “turns that on its head – “I’m female today and two days from now I may decide I’m male… or I am neither male nor female.” If you accept the premise that you can be whatever you say you are, all of these [civil rights] rules fall apart,” the official said.
Moreover, any flexible identity law can be exploited by bad actors, the official said:
At its core, [gender identity] is a hugely anti-feminist ideology. If we are to deny the physiological differences between men and women, men will strategically position themselves in places with women where their strength, mass, and other characteristics create a danger to others.
The official described the draft regulation:
What we really are is saying you can have anti-discrimination protections but that does not require you to say that sex is the [legal] equivalent to self-identification of gender. Because unless we in a land populated by unicorns, there will be people who — if given the ability to simply choose, from time to time, and at any time, what gender they will choose to be — will use that [option] for nefarious purposes …
It really just flies against the great common understanding that exists everywhere outside some ivory towers [for the government] to say that Americans really don’t know how to decide if someone is a man or a woman. And for government to say under penalty that ‘We’re going to take away millions of dollars that we provide you for housing some of the neediest people in our society’ if you have a desk clerk, who when someone walks in obviously inebriated, with three days growth of beard, to a women’s shelter, and says ‘I want a place to sleep’ … and the [clerk] says ‘We’re for women,’ and the person responds, ‘Well, I am a woman.’ Under the current rule, literally, that [clerk] provider couldn’t say ‘Will you show me your drivers’ license, your birth certificate?’ [and] couldn’t say ‘I don’t believe you,’ couldn’t say ‘We’ll have to get back with you later about this.’ And if they did say any of those things, under [Obama] HUD’s rule we would be obligated to start the process of saying you cannot have [taxpayer] money. That does not seem to be the way that things should work …
Shelter officials may also need to confirm a person’s sex when allocating a group of people to single-sex rooms, the official said. So the new rule protects shelter operators:
If their policy is ‘We check everyone’s drivers’ license because we want to know who is staying here … [in case] someone is a fleeing felon or is on a sexual offender’s list, and if you say you’re a man, [then] you’re a man, and if you say you’re a woman, [then] you’re a woman,’ … [and] ‘We’re not going to discriminate against you because we accept women even if you by all evidence appear to be a man, we won’t discriminate against you … but we do decide what your sex is for purpose of admitting you to our sex specific facility’ … [because] sex and gender are different things.
The new rule allows shelters to accept claims made by people who say they are transgender, the official said:
If that same person represents themselves and says ‘I’m a woman,’ and the local organization — either because of state law or their policy — wants to say ”Our policy is to accept you,’ they can do that if they want to.
But the official warned:
The Hollywood version of people having an inspiration and determining their inner self is something other than their chromosomes are, is at best a very rare and infrequent event, and that is not something that should be forced onto the American public and particularly in a way that is broadly viewed as potentially harmful to some of the most victimized people in our society, who are abused women.
Pro-transgender activists in Twitter censored a scientist for the supposed ‘hateful conduct’ of describing transsexualism as a “type of mental disorder.” IOW, more evidence Twitter’s policy is to let staff help progressives by distorting debates & speech. https://t.co/CBYiTX39Or
Background Facts and Figures on Transgender Ideology:
In general, the transgender ideology says a person’s sex is determined by their “gender identity,” not by their biology.
The ideology insists that men and women’s bodies are more or less identical, and it objects to the public’s view of the two sexes as simultaneously different, complementary, and equal. The transgender advocates want to impose their ideology on Americans by establishing “transgender rights” laws, which would require the Department of Justice to penalize individuals and groups that insist that women and girls are biologically different — and have different priorities — than men and boys.
Transgender advocates claim that two million Americans say they are transgender to a greater or lesser extent.
But very few people who describe themselves as transgender undergo transition surgery of the genitals. Only about 4,118 Americans surgically altered their bodies in hospitals from 2000 to 2014 to appear like members of the opposite sex, according to a pro-transgender medical study. A 2018 Pentagon report commissioned by former Defense Secretary James Mattis said that “rates for genital surgery are exceedingly low- 2% of transgender men and 10% of transgender women.”
The transgender movement is diverse, so the different factions have competing goals and priorities.
Polls show the transgender ideology is deeply unpopular, especially among women and parents. In 2017, former President Barack Obama told NPR that his promotion of the transgender ideology made it easier for Donald Trump to win the presidency.
Multiple polls show that most Americans wish to help and comfort people who think they are a member of the opposite sex, even as they also reject the transgender ideology’s claim that people’s legal sex is determined by their feeling of “gender identity,” not by biology. A U.K. survey shows a similar mix of sympathy for people who say they are transgender alongside lopsided opposition to the ideology.
Yet the gender ideology is rapidly gaining power, aided by huge donations from wealthy individuals and medical companies. In Ohio, for example, in February 2018, a judge forced parents of a teenage girl to give up custody so she can begin a lifetime of drug treatments and surgery that will allow her to appear as a male.
The progressive push to bend Americans’ attitudes and their male-and-female civic society around the idea of “gender identity” has already attacked and cracked many of the popular social rules that help Americans manage the cooperation and competition among and between complementary, different, and equal men and women.
Another weightlifting association preserves distinct female and male competitions, so rejecting transgender demands. A useful win against the progressives’ campaign to deny women the right to their own civic groups. https://t.co/CqbixWIjXb
I realize we’ve been through this drill before, both here and on social media, but another case of an unaccompanied veteran being laid to rest has come to our attention, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. Korean War veteran Hezekiah Perkins was ninety years old, and as happens far too often with those that served our country, he outlived all of his immediate family members and fellow soldiers. And so, once again, we are asking for your help.
As often happens, I only learned of this via CNN’s Jake Tapper, who does a bang-up job of honoring our veterans on his Twitter feed.
A Korean War veteran — who has no family in town– will be buried in Cincinnati Saturday with full military honors.
The public is invited to attend.
Korean War Veteran Hezekiah Perkins, 90, will be buried at 3 p.m. Saturday in Cincinnati’s Spring Grove Cemetery — Section 137, Lot 318, Space 1.
He has no immediate family living in the area, officials said, and the public is invited to his services.
Mr. Perkins not only served his country but took responsibility for his own fate. It’s reported that he actually planned his own eventual funeral services and paid for them twenty years in advance, not leaving a financial burden for others when his time came.
I realize that this is coming on short notice because the funeral is at 3:00 pm today. But do you live in the greater Cincinnati area? Or do you perhaps have friends or family members in the vicinity that you could shoot a quick email to or ring up on the phone? It’s Memorial Day weekend, and I know most people probably have plans to kick off the unofficial start to summer with a barbeque or other festivities, but isn’t it a fitting time to show up and send off someone who gave so much for our nation? (This Google Maps key can be used/sent for people to obtain directions to the cemetery. It’s Section 137, Lot 318, Space 1.)
Any help getting the word out and increasing attendance would be most appreciated. And if you’ve never been to a veteran’s funeral held with full military honors, I can assure you that, while a somber occasion, it’s something you will never forget.
Rest in peace, Mr. Perkins, and thank you for your service.
President Trump and First Lady Melania visited Arlington Cemetery on Thursday to pay their Memorial Day respects before leaving on Friday for a state visit to Japan.
The Trumps participated in the annual “flags in” at Arlington in which each grave has an American flag placed on it for Memorial Day.
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day. With Melania, he planted flags at graves in Section 34, where General Pershing and Frank Buckles, the last living WWI veteran, are buried. pic.twitter.com/BWENTlMmWW
The "flags in" ceremony begins today, in which more than 260,000 American Flags are placed at every headstone in Arlington. Pres and Mrs Trump were given honor to place a few flags as well. pic.twitter.com/7eG3A6tWvk
President Trump and Melania are at Arlington National Cemetery to pay their respects ahead of Memorial Day. They’ll be in Japan on Monday’s official holiday and will miss the traditional ceremony. pic.twitter.com/JfbAAAZmAE
We’re honored to host @POTUS and @FLOTUS today for our annual tradition, #FlagsIn. They were welcomed by our Executive Director, Karen Durham-Aguilera; and Senior Enlisted Advisor, Sgt. Maj. Juan Abreu. pic.twitter.com/jejxagC6Tw
— Arlington National Cemetery (@ArlingtonNatl) May 23, 2019
Col. James Tuite IV, Commander of @USArmyOldGuard, and Command Sgt. Maj. Edwin Terrell Brooks, showed @POTUS and @FLOTUS how soldiers place approximately 250,000 flags at headstones and niches at ANC.
— Arlington National Cemetery (@ArlingtonNatl) May 23, 2019
Unedited excerpt of pool feed video followed by complete video:
The complete pool video begins with the motorcade departing the White House and runs throughout the route past the Mall, across Memorial Bridge and then around to an alternate entrance to Arlington Cemetery. It’s a fascinating video worth the time to watch if you have ever wondered what the view is from a presidential motorcade.
Adapting the phrase from the Roman poet Horace, Wilfred Owen during World War I turned “it is was sweet and seemly to die for one’s country” into an anti-war poem. He may have had a point when it came to that war, a war that destroyed the very best of Europe’s young men and, in my view, set it on a downward spiral. Today Western Europe, with all its glorious architecture, art, and music seems like a living Disneyland.
Take, for example, the fire that gobbled up the roof and spire of one of Paris’ most enduring symbols, Notre Dame. The cathedral was built over a long period of time (almost two centuries) as a testament to faith and a binding treasure of a nation. The embers still glowed when architects floated notions of redoing it into, among others, the base of an amusement-meditation center with a swimming pool rooftop:
The contemporary design would draw attention to the “publicness” of the cathedral, and the swimming pool would serve as “a new meditative space with unmatched views over Paris,” the firm said, according to the release.
As we near Memorial Day, I most reflect on the short life of collective memory and what this means to the understanding of history. For me, Memorial Day will always mean my second-grade teacher’s tears as she explained the significance of the day to me. Her brother, an aviator, had perished in the war while training a new flier how to take off from an aircraft carrier. The wounds were deep and I’m sure I was not the only one in the classroom who understood this. Our fathers, uncles, and cousins had just returned (if they were lucky) from serving, often abroad. They didn’t have cell phones to call home. In fact, we often didn’t know exactly where they were. Our news of them came sporadically, in small handwriting on onionskin sheets, which had to pass censors so where they were and what they were doing was pretty much a mystery. The letters came out of order, as did ours to them. The press was also heavily censored, so it provided little information about what was going on where they were.
A few years later, in April of 1951,Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur, and as MacArthur’s family had long ties to Wisconsin he was paraded past my elementary school where we stood on the grounds waving American flags as he passed by on his way to Mitchell Field. He had just addressed Congress memorably, saying, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
“The General’s plane arrived at Mitchell Field, and the entire city turned out to greet him. The populace greeted him with great enthusiasm. Everywhere the streets were lined with flag-waving, cheering people. April 27, 1951, was a day to be remembered in Milwaukee. The motorcade crept slowly up Wisconsin Avenue to the Stadium where 20,000 people roared their approval of a hometown hero’s return. Thus far, plans had proceeded as scheduled. On the official, bunting-draped platform erected especially for the ceremony, the hood denoting his honorary degree was placed across the General’s shoulders. He smiled broadly and stepped to the microphone. In the background, Mrs. MacArthur and the couple’s son sat proudly watching. General MacArthur began to speak.
“No sound came from the mike. He tapped it smartly. Still no sound; the P. A. system had conked out! There was a frantic call to the Engineering School which produced instant results. The General began to talk. His words were gracious, his tone courtly. The crowd went wild!
“Everything after that was anticlimax. Crowds pressed forward to see the famous man as the party left the stadium for a tour of the city. I rode with the General in his official car as we toured Milwaukee. He hadn’t bargained for this. Nor had we. He was very obviously fatigued. Yet, when the motorcade reached MacArthur Square, he acknowledged the greetings of the crowd graciously.
We were too young to fully understand who he was and what had occurred but so well-regarded was he in that place and time, I remember confusing him in my mind with the myth of Hercules and telling my parents that when he was a baby lying in a shield he reached out and strangled two snakes.
It’s impossible to fully convey to even my now adolescent grandchild the temper of that time. How much we respected and adored our military. They had saved us, and we knew it. We knew it even before the postwar letters from Poland to my Aunt revealed what had happened to family members who had remained in their town and I heard her cries.
For my grandchild — like you — if she turns on the television or reads the papers, I’m sure she’ll see ads for picnic supplies, recipes for your cookout, notices of restaurant and lawn equipment specials, and stories of U.S. military war crimes. In the meantime, the head of the EU Commission derides nationalism as “Stupid” and the globalists in our ranks certainly agree with him. I disagree. People will not fight to defend bloated, incompetent, undemocratic international organizations like the EU or the UN. Americans wouldn’t. It’s mom, flag and apple pie (our national values), not Juncker’s. On Monday when the results of the EU elections can be published, we will find out if he’s right, if Western Europe wants to scrap nationalism, or if I’m right and sentiment for national sovereignty and traditions still rules the day.
Wilfred Owen’s bitter screed on war might have been appropriate for his time, but it is monstrously off the mark today when Americans and Europe face threats more akin to those of the war that followed the “war to end all wars.” Take some time off on Monday to remember and honor those who died for you.
Adapting the phrase from the Roman poet Horace, Wilfred Owen during World War I turned “it is was sweet and seemly to die for one’s country” into an anti-war poem. He may have had a point when it came to that war, a war that destroyed the very best of Europe’s young men and, in my view, set it on a downward spiral. Today Western Europe, with all its glorious architecture, art, and music seems like a living Disneyland.
Take, for example, the fire that gobbled up the roof and spire of one of Paris’ most enduring symbols, Notre Dame. The cathedral was built over a long period of time (almost two centuries) as a testament to faith and a binding treasure of a nation. The embers still glowed when architects floated notions of redoing it into, among others, the base of an amusement-meditation center with a swimming pool rooftop:
The contemporary design would draw attention to the “publicness” of the cathedral, and the swimming pool would serve as “a new meditative space with unmatched views over Paris,” the firm said, according to the release.
As we near Memorial Day, I most reflect on the short life of collective memory and what this means to the understanding of history. For me, Memorial Day will always mean my second-grade teacher’s tears as she explained the significance of the day to me. Her brother, an aviator, had perished in the war while training a new flier how to take off from an aircraft carrier. The wounds were deep and I’m sure I was not the only one in the classroom who understood this. Our fathers, uncles, and cousins had just returned (if they were lucky) from serving, often abroad. They didn’t have cell phones to call home. In fact, we often didn’t know exactly where they were. Our news of them came sporadically, in small handwriting on onionskin sheets, which had to pass censors so where they were and what they were doing was pretty much a mystery. The letters came out of order, as did ours to them. The press was also heavily censored, so it provided little information about what was going on where they were.
A few years later, in April of 1951,Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur, and as MacArthur’s family had long ties to Wisconsin he was paraded past my elementary school where we stood on the grounds waving American flags as he passed by on his way to Mitchell Field. He had just addressed Congress memorably, saying, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.”
“The General’s plane arrived at Mitchell Field, and the entire city turned out to greet him. The populace greeted him with great enthusiasm. Everywhere the streets were lined with flag-waving, cheering people. April 27, 1951, was a day to be remembered in Milwaukee. The motorcade crept slowly up Wisconsin Avenue to the Stadium where 20,000 people roared their approval of a hometown hero’s return. Thus far, plans had proceeded as scheduled. On the official, bunting-draped platform erected especially for the ceremony, the hood denoting his honorary degree was placed across the General’s shoulders. He smiled broadly and stepped to the microphone. In the background, Mrs. MacArthur and the couple’s son sat proudly watching. General MacArthur began to speak.
“No sound came from the mike. He tapped it smartly. Still no sound; the P. A. system had conked out! There was a frantic call to the Engineering School which produced instant results. The General began to talk. His words were gracious, his tone courtly. The crowd went wild!
“Everything after that was anticlimax. Crowds pressed forward to see the famous man as the party left the stadium for a tour of the city. I rode with the General in his official car as we toured Milwaukee. He hadn’t bargained for this. Nor had we. He was very obviously fatigued. Yet, when the motorcade reached MacArthur Square, he acknowledged the greetings of the crowd graciously.
We were too young to fully understand who he was and what had occurred but so well-regarded was he in that place and time, I remember confusing him in my mind with the myth of Hercules and telling my parents that when he was a baby lying in a shield he reached out and strangled two snakes.
It’s impossible to fully convey to even my now adolescent grandchild the temper of that time. How much we respected and adored our military. They had saved us, and we knew it. We knew it even before the postwar letters from Poland to my Aunt revealed what had happened to family members who had remained in their town and I heard her cries.
For my grandchild — like you — if she turns on the television or reads the papers, I’m sure she’ll see ads for picnic supplies, recipes for your cookout, notices of restaurant and lawn equipment specials, and stories of U.S. military war crimes. In the meantime, the head of the EU Commission derides nationalism as “Stupid” and the globalists in our ranks certainly agree with him. I disagree. People will not fight to defend bloated, incompetent, undemocratic international organizations like the EU or the UN. Americans wouldn’t. It’s mom, flag and apple pie (our national values), not Juncker’s. On Monday when the results of the EU elections can be published, we will find out if he’s right, if Western Europe wants to scrap nationalism, or if I’m right and sentiment for national sovereignty and traditions still rules the day.
Wilfred Owen’s bitter screed on war might have been appropriate for his time, but it is monstrously off the mark today when Americans and Europe face threats more akin to those of the war that followed the “war to end all wars.” Take some time off on Monday to remember and honor those who died for you.
On Friday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, signed into law one of the most pro-life laws in the nation, outlawing abortion at eight weeks, save an exception for the life or risk of major physical harm to the mother. The legislation does not include an exception for rape or incest, and sex- , ability- , and race-selective abortions are also banned outright.
The law is set to go into effect on August 28, though pro-abortion organizations are expected to challenge its constitutionality. As noted byFox News, the Missouri law was crafted to stand up to legal challenges, not provoke a showdown over Roe v. Wade: “If the eight-week ban is struck down, the bill includes a ladder of less-restrictive time limits at 14, 18 or 20 weeks.”
Additionally, if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned, the law is designed to kick-in as a full abortion ban.
Responding to criticism over the lack of exceptions for abortion post-eight weeks, Gov. Parson argued that two months is enough time to decide to get an abortion, even in tough cases.
“Is it a terrible thing that happens in those situations? Yes it is,” the Republican acknowledged, according to Fox. “But the reality of it is bad things do happen sometimes. But you have two months to decide what you’re going to do with that issue, and I believe in two months you can make a decision.”
After the law goes into effect, those performing illegal abortions could face 15 years behind bars. Mothers, however, cannot be punished for having an abortion — as with Alabama’s strict abortion ban signed last week.
Sara Baker, a rep from the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, called the law “unconstitutional”; the organization has vowed to look at “all options, including litigation, to block the law from going into effect.”
Democrats have responded to sweeping pro-life legislation with their own proposed bill: the euphemistically-named “Women’s Health Protection Act,” or WHPA. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), would block and upend vital pro-life legislation, such as so-called “heartbeat bills” — which protect unborn babies with a detectable heartbeat from abortion — waiting periods, and mandates on ultrasounds, among other abortion restrictions, as reported by The Daily Wire on Friday.
Speaking at a press conference about the bill on Thursday — flanked by Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen — Chu boasted, “Our bill finally puts a stop to the state-based attacks that anti-abortion advocates have been trying to use to undermine or even reverse Roe. … It means no abortion bans.”
“Access to safe & legal abortions isn’t just a women’s issue—it’s a human rights issue. Today, we introduce the Women’s Health Protection Act to guarantee a person’s right to control their own body & future, everywhere in America,” read a post on Sen. Blumenthal’s Facebook page. “We refuse to stand by as extremist state lawmakers try to undermine women’s health care. Proud to stand up with Judy Chu& hundreds of our colleagues to say: It’s time to fight back against anti-choice state laws. #ActForWomen”
This #MemorialDay, let us renew our commitment to the fallen & the families that survived them. Let us walk through this Memorial Day weekend ready to share in both the joys & adversities of life as we remember their service & sacrifice. #HonorThem pic.twitter.com/iX7kyRaSRS — Dr. Heather Wilson (@SecAFOfficial) May 27, 2019
Evangelist Rev. Franklin Graham is leading a group of more than 250 Christian leaders in calling for June 2 to be a “special day of prayer for the President, Donald J. Trump.”
Graham posted his call to Facebook, asking for Americans to respond to his post:
President Trump’s enemies continue to try everything to destroy him, his family, and the presidency. In the history of our country, no president has been attacked as he has. I believe the only hope for him, and this nation, is God.
This is a critical time for America. We’re on the edge of a precipice. Time is short. We need to pray for God to intervene. We need to ask God to protect, strengthen, encourage, and guide the President.
We know that God hears and answers prayer. He can soften hearts and change minds. He is all-powerful, and He rules over the affairs of nations. The Bible instructs us to pray for those in authority, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” (1 Timothy 2:2–3).
Graham is asking all pastors to lead their congregations on June 2 in praying for the president, and that Sunday schools and other groups would also join in the special day of prayer. The Christian leader also asks that “individuals and families across the country would have a special focus on praying for the President that day.”
“Would you let me know in the comments below if you commit to pray with us?” Graham asked. “And will you share this on your social media platforms so that we can have as many people as possible praying?”
A Utah judge has been suspended for six months without pay by that state’s supreme court for intemperate comments about Trump online and even from the bench. Utah judges are appointees based on “merit,” so there will be no electoral consequences, but such a drastic rebuke to a person in a position dependent on high regard from the public is potentially devastating. personally and professionally.
This incident seems to be an example of the human tragedies that result from the media-fed obsession with demonizing President Trump that has gripped so many Americans.
What is remarkable and tragic in this incident of TDS is that a judge – a person who entrusted with great powers on the premise of an ability to remain detached and impartial in official duties – has betrayed himself and his responsibilities. Judge Michael Kwan of Taylorsville, UT seems to have been driven by TDS to disregard these issues.
During an exchange with a defendant during a January 2017 hearing, [Kwan launched into a commentary about Trump’s immigration and tax policies. Apparently behind in his fine payments, the defendant told Kwan he would pay after he received his tax refund.
Kwan questioned whether the defendant would get any money back.
“I pray and cross my fingers,” the man said.
Kwan replied, “OK. Prayer might be the answer. ‘Cause he just signed an order to start building the wall and he has no money to do that, and so if you think you are going to get taxes back this year, uh-yeah, maybe, maybe not. But don’t worry, there is a tax cut for the wealthy so if you make over $500,000 you’re getting a tax cut. You’re right there, right? Pretty close? All right, so do you have a plan? Other than just get the tax cut and pay it off?”
There is absolutely no professional reason for such comments from the bench. Could anyone who supports President Trump feel secure if facing a proceeding in Judge Kwan’s courtroom?
The expression “sober as a judge” reflects the notion that judges must not allow themselves even the minor vices that the rest of us are permitted, in order to remain clear-headed and in control at all times, not just on the bench.
In 2016 and early 2017, Kwan repeatedly posted comments and shared articles on Facebook and LinkedIn about Trump.
“With respect to Donald Trump, Judge Kwan’s postings were laden with blunt, and sometimes indelicate, criticism,” Pearce wrote.
Kwan posted a Washington Post article titled, “Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice,” in July 2016. Above the article’s headline, he added, “Checkmate.”
In November 2016, three days after the presidential election, “Judge Kwan remarked, ‘Think I’ll go to the shelter to adopt a cat before the President-Elect grabs them all …,” the court’s opinion states.
On the day Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, Kwan posted, “Welcome to governing. Will you dig your heels in and spend the next four years undermining our country’s reputation and standing in the world? … Will you continue to demonstrate your inability to govern and political incompetence?”
In February 2017, Kwan wrote, “Welcome to the beginning of the fascist takeover,” and “We need to … be diligent in questioning Congressional Republicans if they are going to be the American Reichstag and refuse to stand up for the Constitution, refuse to uphold their oath of office and enable the tyrants to consolidate their power.”
How is it possible that a respected, veteran jurist – Judge Kwan has 21 years on the bench – go so far over the edge and disgrace his years of service?
I blame the media that constantly fan the flames of hatred and resentment of those members of the public that were surprised and disappointed that their candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost an election. With such continual support from the media, in many social circles, voicing disgust and anger at President Trump has become a signal of solidarity with their friends, who – let’s be frank here – regard themselves as intellectually and morally superior to the unwashed masses who inflicted Trump upon them.
They do not see how self-destructive this is. That is why TDS is derangement. Deranged people lose their normal amities to perceive reality and reason from it.
It is a tragedy, I maintain, one that victimizes not only Trump and his supporters (as objects of hate) but the TDS sufferers themselves, who are ed toward self-destructive behavior.
A Utah judge has been suspended for six months without pay by that state’s supreme court for intemperate comments about Trump online and even from the bench. Utah judges are appointees based on “merit,” so there will be no electoral consequences, but such a drastic rebuke to a person in a position dependent on high regard from the public is potentially devastating. personally and professionally.
This incident seems to be an example of the human tragedies that result from the media-fed obsession with demonizing President Trump that has gripped so many Americans.
What is remarkable and tragic in this incident of TDS is that a judge – a person who entrusted with great powers on the premise of an ability to remain detached and impartial in official duties – has betrayed himself and his responsibilities. Judge Michael Kwan of Taylorsville, UT seems to have been driven by TDS to disregard these issues.
During an exchange with a defendant during a January 2017 hearing, [Kwan launched into a commentary about Trump’s immigration and tax policies. Apparently behind in his fine payments, the defendant told Kwan he would pay after he received his tax refund.
Kwan questioned whether the defendant would get any money back.
“I pray and cross my fingers,” the man said.
Kwan replied, “OK. Prayer might be the answer. ‘Cause he just signed an order to start building the wall and he has no money to do that, and so if you think you are going to get taxes back this year, uh-yeah, maybe, maybe not. But don’t worry, there is a tax cut for the wealthy so if you make over $500,000 you’re getting a tax cut. You’re right there, right? Pretty close? All right, so do you have a plan? Other than just get the tax cut and pay it off?”
There is absolutely no professional reason for such comments from the bench. Could anyone who supports President Trump feel secure if facing a proceeding in Judge Kwan’s courtroom?
The expression “sober as a judge” reflects the notion that judges must not allow themselves even the minor vices that the rest of us are permitted, in order to remain clear-headed and in control at all times, not just on the bench.
In 2016 and early 2017, Kwan repeatedly posted comments and shared articles on Facebook and LinkedIn about Trump.
“With respect to Donald Trump, Judge Kwan’s postings were laden with blunt, and sometimes indelicate, criticism,” Pearce wrote.
Kwan posted a Washington Post article titled, “Ghazala Khan: Trump criticized my silence. He knows nothing about true sacrifice,” in July 2016. Above the article’s headline, he added, “Checkmate.”
In November 2016, three days after the presidential election, “Judge Kwan remarked, ‘Think I’ll go to the shelter to adopt a cat before the President-Elect grabs them all …,” the court’s opinion states.
On the day Trump was inaugurated in January 2017, Kwan posted, “Welcome to governing. Will you dig your heels in and spend the next four years undermining our country’s reputation and standing in the world? … Will you continue to demonstrate your inability to govern and political incompetence?”
In February 2017, Kwan wrote, “Welcome to the beginning of the fascist takeover,” and “We need to … be diligent in questioning Congressional Republicans if they are going to be the American Reichstag and refuse to stand up for the Constitution, refuse to uphold their oath of office and enable the tyrants to consolidate their power.”
How is it possible that a respected, veteran jurist – Judge Kwan has 21 years on the bench – go so far over the edge and disgrace his years of service?
I blame the media that constantly fan the flames of hatred and resentment of those members of the public that were surprised and disappointed that their candidate, Hillary Clinton, lost an election. With such continual support from the media, in many social circles, voicing disgust and anger at President Trump has become a signal of solidarity with their friends, who – let’s be frank here – regard themselves as intellectually and morally superior to the unwashed masses who inflicted Trump upon them.
They do not see how self-destructive this is. That is why TDS is derangement. Deranged people lose their normal amities to perceive reality and reason from it.
It is a tragedy, I maintain, one that victimizes not only Trump and his supporters (as objects of hate) but the TDS sufferers themselves, who are ed toward self-destructive behavior.
A few years later, in April of 1951,Truman fired 
