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Author: Fuzzy Slippers

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Fuzzy Slippers

I am a constitutional conservative, a writer, and an editor.

Follow me on Twitter @fuzislippers

Roger Stone, an ally of and unofficial campaign adviser of President Trump, testified Tuesday in a closed hearing of the House Intelligence Committee.  Though Stone requested an open hearing, it was at the Committee's insistence that the interview be closed. This is the latest in the efforts of Congress to root out alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and/or Trump associates. Stone was called to testify because he had a private Twitter conversation with infamous hacker Guccifer 2.0.

Last week, we blogged about today's Kuridsh Independence referendum.  Yesterday's Kurdish independence rally attracted an enormous crowd, perhaps foreshadowing nearly 80% of the reported 3.9 million registered voters turning out at the polls today. Jubilant Kurds described today as "the best day of their life" and some even took to flying the Brazilian flag because there were no Kurdish ones left.

Twitter has been afire today with the controversy about Stephen Curry going to the White House and reactions to President Trump's speech in Alabama. During President Trump's speech at a rally for Luther Strange (R-AL), he addressed the growing trend among NFL players to kneel disrespectfully during the national anthem.  Trump asked, "“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say ‘get that son of a b***h off the field right now – he’s fired’?”. Most people hearing or reading this comment recognize that the president is referring to the disrespectful kneeling "protest" that involves football (and other sports) players deliberately taking a knee during the national anthem.

Perhaps nothing less than losing the 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump could have motivated the left to brainstorm ways to tackle their popular vote problem.  The left tends to gravitate to the coasts and until relatively recently have left "flyover" country to the deplorable unwashed masses. Some on the left seem to be, in increasing numbers, coming to the conclusion that they need a Plan B in case their lunge to the progressive left doesn't pan out. To that end, leftists are positing a variety of ways to infiltrate red states and turn them blue.  From moving numerous government offices to flyover country to congregating in and taking over the political and socio-cultural center of major cities in red states, the left seems to be alert to the fact that the massive influx of blue staters to red states can make a difference to the political fortunes of their party and, ultimately, of its agenda.

I used to be puzzled by patently- and provably-untrue statements made by prominent Democrats.  For example, former Democrat governor, presidential hopeful, and DNC chairman and current "Democrat consultant" Howard Dean stirred controversy earlier this year with his insistence that "hate speech" is not protected by the First Amendment. I wrote about this a few months ago, noting that restricting Americans' First Amendment rights is a key goal of the left.
One of the fondest dreams of the radical (and not-so radical) left is to undermine the First Amendment and ultimately to control speech.  Democrats have advocated the DOJ’s investigation and even prosecution of climate “skeptics,” condemned “hate” speech formally in the House, supported the criminalization and ban of “hate” speech, and as we see play out on college campuses across the nation, resorted to violence as a response to speech with which they disagree.

Newsela is a relatively recently-established educational resource that purportedly specializes in non-fiction content for the nation's K-12 schools, teachers, and students.  It sprung up as a private partner of Common Core, and the service reaches at least 75% of America's K-12 classrooms. Newsela recently came under fire for its 9/11 instructional material. Newsela's 9/11 "Fact Sheet" included reference to Israel's "long and shady history" and to Israel as belonging, originally, to Muslims. A historical impossibility. Nonetheless, this drivel was published far and wide, and America's 5th and 6th grade students across the nation were spoon-fed it. Newsela has, under pressure from parents and alarmed educators, retracted and corrected the materials, but not before the damage was done.

On Friday morning, a bomb was detonated in the London Underground near Parsons Green.  Two men have since been arrested, Prime Minister Teresa May has downgraded the UK threat level from critical to severe, and British police are searching the Surrey home of an elderly couple who fostered "refugee children."  The two men arrested are reportedly aged 18 and 21. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Investigators probing a bomb blast that injured more than two dozen people in London’s subway last week on Sunday combed through a house in this suburban town owned by elderly foster parents that neighbors said had recently been caring for two “refugees.”

I have to admit that I am weary of and even becoming a tiny bit bored by this sort of thing, but . . . here we go.  Again.  A white police officer shoots and kills a black suspect in the line of duty, is duly acquitted in a court of law, and . . . riots erupt in protest of the ruling. Again. That this violent and unhinged reaction is related only to the races of the officer and the suspect rather than points of law seems a given.  Again. The Washington Post reports:
Demonstrators clashed with police officers Friday night in St. Louis after the acquittal of a white former police officer who was charged with murder last year for fatally shooting a black driver after a car chase.

In a jaw-dropping case involving an illegal alien wanted for deportation, a police officer's weapon, and local law enforcement not only ignoring an ICE request to block his release but removing an ICE monitoring device, a young San Francisco man has been murdered during a robbery. The Sacramento Bee reports:
Federal immigration agents were tracking a teenager who was facing deportation when he fatally shot a popular community volunteer during a robbery in San Francisco, authorities said Friday. The slaying occurred on Aug. 15, four days after sheriff's investigators say 18-year-old Erick Garcia-Pineda stole the murder weapon from the personal car of a San Francisco police officer.

One of the many things that has long puzzled me about the leftist agenda is its long-standing, mulit-pronged attack on Judeo-Christianity.  On the one hand, I understand that the left has a reason for wishing to undermine religion.  After all, as assorted totalitarians, fascists, and communists well know, a populace permitted to believe in and publicly worship a power higher than government is anathema to totalitarian central control. Challenging and wiping out all religious references makes perfect sense if your goal is the total subjugation of a people under the all-powerful arm of a government that claims it will provide for all of its citizens' earthly needs.  What has puzzled me is that much of the left's base is Christian and/or Catholic.  I've been waiting at least ten years for the left to grasp this simple fact.

California's primaries are currently held in June; however, legislation is expected to be signed by Governor Jerry Brown (D) next week that would move them to March. This move would place California's primaries right after Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.  Further, the move would tilt the donor and electoral tables heavily in Senator Kamala Harris' (D-CA) favor. Politico reports:
California is pushing forward with a plan to change the state’s primary date from June to March, a move that could scramble the 2020 presidential nominating contest and swing the early weight of the campaign to the west.

Doug Schoen, a political consultant on Bill Clinton's 1996 and Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaigns, gained notice in conservative circles when he co-penned the 2010 WaPo op-ed, "One and Done:  To be a great president, Obama should not seek reelection in 2012."  An outspoken and vehement critic of Obama, Schoen is now positing former First Lady Michelle Obama as the 2020 cure for all that ails Democrats. Schoen remains a Democrat and stalwartly #NeverObama, but he says that he recommends Michelle as the last best hope for Democrats in 2020 in his role as an "analyst."