Category: links

Partiers party, protestors protest, rioters riot, and reasoners . . . go to Townhall and read the latest Common Sense column from Paul Jacob. Particularly impassioned reasoners might wish to return for more perspective:

• CNN: Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address
• NPR: President Trump’s Inaugural Address, Annotated
• Ronald Reagan’s 1981 Inaugural Address
• CNN: Coverage of Disturbances During Inauguration
• It’s Going Down: Disrupt Washington
• Telegraph (UK): Donald Trump protests: Limo ‘set on fire’ and 217 arrested as police use tear gas on black-clad activists
• YouTube: Inauguration Protest In Washington Turns Violent
• Townhall: Do You Know the Way to San Jose?
• Inside Edition: Trump protester punched
• YouTube: Trump supporters violently push black woman
• Women’s March on Washington: Why I March
• YouTube: “Happy Together” by The Turtles
• Disruptj20: Call to Action

YouTube: San Jose videos

https://youtu.be/KpQD3wEDfdg

https://youtu.be/w7OV10q0fa0

https://youtu.be/my6-YfX7ApM

Fighting corruption in government is a never-ending task. But it looks like there are certain institutional practices that can help us, year in, year out.

Click on over to Townhall for the latest lesson in this ancient wisdom, pried from newspaper headlines. Then come back here for those headlines:

• Arkansas Business: State Rep. Micah Neal Pleads Guilty to Taking Kickbacks on GIF Money
• 5News Online: Arkansas State Representative From Springdale Admits To Taking Bribes
• Conduit for Action: Legislator’s guilty plea spotlights problem of discretionary spending of GIF
• Conduit for Action: How a 1997 Power Grab is costing Arkansas taxpayers millions on pet projects
• Arkansas Business: Identities of Unidentified Players in Neal Indictment Revealed
• Townhall: A Sudden Case of Homesickness
• Townhall: The Deceivers
• Libertyifund.org: Add 22 Pages to the Arkansas Constitution?
• Common Sense: Stop the Phony Crony Pay Grab
• Conduit for Action: Senator Jon Woods and the demise of the Arkansas ethics law
• New York Times: Arkansas Lawmakers Indicted in Vast Corruption Case
• Log Cabin Democrat: Wilson sentenced to 70 months, $1.176 million restitution

Just how deep in whose mess are we in?

Click on over to Townhall for an answer. Then come back here.

• Melanie Hunter, CNS — Schumer: GOP Plan to Repeal Obamacare ‘Will Make America Sick Again’
• AM New York — Trump’s Tweets: ObamaCare Was a Lie, Schumer Is Democrats’ Head Clown, and More
• Peter Suderman, Reason — The Republican Plan to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare Will Do Neither
• William Graham Sumner — The Forgotten Man
• Amity Schlaes — The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression (which focuses on Sumner’s metaphor and FDR’s expropriation of it)

Should we “err on the side of security”?

We shouldn’t err at all. That gets us nowhere. And unthinkingly sticking to failed notions of security is not helping avoid mistakes.

Click on over to Townhall. Then back here for more intel.

• The Intercept: From Paris to Boston, Terrorists Were Already Known to Authorities
• Washington Post: Suspect in Berlin market attack was radicalized in an Italian jail
• CNN: How the Berlin attack unfolded
• Telegraph (London): Tunisian suspect was investigated over earlier terror plot
• Truth in Media: Trump Says He Supports Reauthorizing Patriot Act, NSA Metadata Collection
• Washington Times: FBI admits no major cases cracked with Patriot Act snooping powers
• Washington Times: NSA chief’s admission of misleading numbers adds to Obama administration blunders
• MyShadow.org: Lies and Revelations – Why mass surveillance is not about catching the “bad guys”
• Telegraph (London): Who is Salah Abdeslam and who were the Paris terrorists? Everything we know about the Isil attackers
• Politico: The FBI’s Growing Surveillance Gap
• The Daily Beast: Omar Mateen, Terrorist Who Attacked Orlando Gay Club, Had Been Investigated by FBI
• New York Times: 2 U.S. Agencies Added Boston Bomb Suspect to Watch Lists
• ABC News: Recruiter Shooting Suspect Under FBI Investigation
• The Federalist: NY, NJ Bomber Rahani the Latest Terrorist to Pass FBI Investigation
• Electronic Freedom Foundation: A Coalition says to Congress – End 702 or Enact Reforms

Merry Christmas! Oh, and before you get too comfortable, click on over to Townhall. Then come back here for more nog:

• The Sentinel: Ficker surprised by size of term limit win
• U.S. Term Limits: Municipal Election Results (2008-2014)
• Time: See How Donald Trump’s Proposed Term Limits Would Eliminate Half of Congress
• Institute for Justice: Policing for profit
• Washington Post: In tough times, police start seizing a lot more stuff from people
• Washington Post: How police took $53,000 from a Christian band, an orphanage and a church
• Common Sense: Baghdad Boots
• New York Times: U.S. to Send 600 More Troops to Iraq to Help Retake Mosul From ISIS
• CNN: Obama announces an additional 250 special operations forces to Syria
• Washington Post: Berlin Christmas market suspect was on terrorism radar after radicalization
• Townhall: Fact Checking for Partisan Fun and Profit

When will it all end? Paul Jacob’s diagnosis, prognosis, and ag(ony)gnosis on Townhall. Click on over, then come back here for the wrap up:

• Washington Post: Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House
• U.S. Government Archives: About the Electors
• YouTube: Unite for America TV Ad
• Time: These Celebrities Are Urging the Electoral College to Dump Donald Trump
• CNN: What happens in the extremely unlikely scenario the Electoral College goes rogue?
• Washington Post: In last-shot bid, thousands urge electoral college to block Trump at Monday vote
• Fox News: Cavuto Faces Off with Pelosi’s Daughter as Electors Demand Russia Briefing
• Marc Thiessen at Washington Post: Don’t blame Comey for Clinton’s defeat
• Philly.com: Yes, you can blame millennials in Pa. and elsewhere for Clinton’s loss
• Motto: Rachel Maddow Calls Out Third-Party Voters
• Reason: Did Gary Johnson and Jill Stein Voters Cost Hillary Clinton The Election?
• New York Magazine: No Matter How You Cut It, Trump Is 3 Electoral Votes Short of a Path to Victory
• Wikipedia: Year Zero (political notion)

If it is the inside story you want, click on over to Townhall. Paul Jacob has received a special briefing.

Click back here for public information:

• Washington Post: Secret CIA assessment says Russia was trying to help Trump win White House
• New York Times: Russian Hackers Acted to Aid Trump in Election, U.S. Says
• Wikipedia: List of US presidential elections by Electoral College margin
• CNN: Donald Trump takes aim at US intelligence community on Russia
• The Intercept: Anonymous Leaks to the WashPost About the CIA’s Russia Beliefs Are No Substitute for Evidence

Our lame duck president seems intent on making waves on his way out of the pond. Not all those waves seem designed to flood the world with freedom. Click on over to Townhall, for the latest affront to freedom and the American Dream.

• USA Today: Obama supports registering women for military draft
• Business Insider: Congress kills plan forcing women to register for the military draft
• Townhall: House Passes 2017 Defense Bill Without Controversial Draft Provision
• New York Times: Senate Votes to Require Women to Register for the Draft
• Resistance News: Women and Draft Registration
• CNN: Obama signs onto women registering for Selective Serviceo
• NNOMY: House votes down proposal to defund the Selective Service System
• New York Times: Obama’s embrace of drone strikes will be a lasting legacy

Start carving the headstone, inscribe the death date: The dictator is dead. Long live his opposition. Bury the man in the ground. And click on over to Townhall for the obit, coming back here for more dirt:

• Glenn Miller: When That Man is Dead and Gone
• Lyrics Playground: When That Man is Dead and Gone
• New York Times: Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied US, Dies at 90
• Washington Post: Cuban dictator, one of the world’s most repressive leaders, dies at 90
• BBC: Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader of revolution, dies at 90
• Bloomberg: Fidel Castro, Communist Former Leader of Cuba, Dies at 90
• The Real Cuba: The Useful idiots
• Human Events: Hollywood’s Mindless Love Affair with Castro
• The Hill: Sanders Sanders defends past praise of Fidel Castro
• New York Times: Dissident Accuses Cuba of Manipulating Fear of U.S. Invasion
• Human Rights Watch: Fidel Castro’s Record of Repression
• Common Sense: Crybaby
• Common Sense: One-Party Socialism?

Paul Jacob was in Europe last week, at a conference. Which was not without its ideological conflicts — on the streets. Click on over to Townhall, then come back here for street-ready ideas.

• Wikipedia: Pablo Soto
• 2010 Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy
• Open Government community on Joinup: Madrid participation portal opens for discussion, voting to follow
• Democracy International: Daniel Schily
• 2016 Global Forum
• Denver Post: On Colorado
• noinvite.com: Voting Underway in Bulgaria’s Presidential Election, Referendum
• Korean Democracy Foundation
• ResearchGate: David Altman
• Daniela Bozhinova
• Reuters: Italy’s 5-star wants vote on euro, joining wave of referendums