One Nation Under Anarcho-Tyranny

It's Michelle Malkin:

"One Nation Under Anarcho-Tyranny" by @michellemalkin https://t.co/9ofNkd3yn0

— The Unz Review (@UnzReview) July 22, 2020

I'm re-posting full vid of what happened to us in Denver Sunday at #backtheblue. With @foxnews cutting away from @presssec exposing Antifa/BLM, it's more important than ever to SHOW AMERICA what these violent terrorists are doing to law-abiding people. https://t.co/sQYQyMRg7Z

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) July 24, 2020

The America you grew up in is not the America we live in now.

One nation under God? Ha.

Land of the free? Ha.

Domestic tranquility? Ha.

Equal protection under the law? Ha.

The right to bear arms? Ha.

Freedom of speech? Association? Peaceable assembly? Ha. Ha. Ha.

It’s not “socialism” or “communism” under which we suffer. Our dangerously chaotic, selectively oppressive predicament is more accurately described as “anarcho-tyranny.” The late conservative columnist Sam Francis first coined the term in 1992 to diagnose a condition of “both anarchy (the failure of the state to enforce the laws) and, at the same time, tyranny—the enforcement of laws by the state for oppressive purposes.”

The “criminalization of the law-abiding and innocent,” Francis expounded, is achieved in such a state through:

• “exorbitant taxation, bureaucratic regulation;
• the invasion of privacy, and the engineering of social institutions, such as the family and local schools;
• the imposition of thought control through ‘sensitivity training’ and multiculturalist curricula;
• ‘hate crime’ laws;
• gun-control laws that punish or disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens but have no impact on violent criminals who get guns illegally;
• and a vast labyrinth of other measures.”

The toxic combination of Pandemic Panic and George Floyd Derangement Syndrome has thoroughly destroyed the home of the brave. It is a paradise for the depraved and dictatorial.

Anarcho-tyranny is how hoodlums can toss statues into rivers with impunity, while citizens disgusted by Black Lives Matter street grafitti are charged with “hate crimes” – as David Nelson and Nicole Anderson in Martinez, Calif., were by a George Soros-funded district attorney two weeks ago.

Anarcho-tyranny is how rioters can shut down highways and byways on a whim without fear of arrest, while commuters trying to escape the window-smashing barbarians obstructing traffic are charged with “assault”—as poor Jennifer Watson of Denver, Colo., was this week.

Anarcho-tyranny is how hordes of gay pride activists marching shoulder to shoulder can defy social distancing guidelines with gushing approbation from radical left-wing medical “experts,” while anti-lockdown and anti-mask mandate protesters are deemed public health menaces who now face snitch hotlines, fines, house arrest, or jail time.

Anarcho-tyranny is how 1,000 black militia members can take over the streets in Georgia and point their guns at motorists as they demand reparations, while white citizen militia members in Idaho, Utah, and New Mexico have been smeared publicly as racists and face injunctions for peacefully defending their neighborhoods.

Where do the police stand in this regime? It pains me to say it, but those of us who have backed the blue so loyally and vocally can no longer do so under the assumption that the blue will back us.

It’s rank and file cops who are issuing citations to citizens who want to breathe freely.

It’s rank and file cops who are standing by while our monuments and courthouses and landmarks are burned and obliterated.

It was rank and file cops in Denver who watched as my patriotic friends and I tried to hold a Law Enforcement Appreciation Day this past Sunday were besieged by Black Lives Matter and Antifa thugs who had declared that their sole intent in invading our permitted celebration was to “shut us down.” I livestreamed the chaos as pro-police attendees were beaten, including the organizer Ron MacLachlan, who was bloodied in the face and head just a few feet from me by black-masked animals. One Antifa actor wielded her collapsible baton just inches from me.

Justice for Jack Phillips, Owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Colorado (VIDEO)

Vodkapundit linked me at Instapundit the other day, "VIDEO: CNN Reacts to the Supreme Court’s Ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop."

And here's more video, from the Alliance Defending Freedom, the group representing Jack Phillips:

CNN Reacts to the Supreme Court's Ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop (VIDEO)

Poppy Harlow does a good job at maintaining objectivity, but it's not until 8:30 minutes into this video where she brings up the issue of the Colorado commission authorities' extreme hostility to religion. I mean, from the case we see intense animus to Christianity:

As the record shows, some of the commissioners at the Commission’s formal, public hearings endorsed the view that religious beliefs cannot legitimately be carried into the public sphere or commercial domain, disparaged Phillips’ faith as despicable and characterized it as merely rhetorical, and compared his invocation of his sincerely held religious beliefs to defenses of slavery and the Holocaust. No commissioners objected to the comments. Nor were they mentioned in the later state-court ruling or disavowed in the briefs filed here. The comments thus cast doubt on the fairness and impartiality of the Commission’s adjudication of Phillips’ case.

I tweeted:

Leftists like Nina Totenberg are downplaying the Court's ruling, claiming it was decided on the most "narrow grounds," but reading it we see a major statement denouncing the radical left's monstrous religious bigotry and anti-Christian animus. #MasterpieceCakeshop #SCOTUS 🙏 https://t.co/YmJo3xUskj

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 4, 2018

#MasterpieceCakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission: #SCOTUS https://t.co/N53SQ3Mif4

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 4, 2018

But watch, at CNN:

Big Win for Religious Freedom in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission

Actually, it's apparently a very narrow ruling touching on the nature of religious bias in Colorado's anti-discrimination legislation, but either way, conservative proponents of freedom of expression and religious belief are going to be jumping for the moon today.

At the Washington Post, "Supreme Court rules in favor of baker who would not make wedding cake for gay couple":

Supreme Court narrowly rules for a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple https://t.co/ovz7BwsqGG

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 4, 2018

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled for a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a gay couple.

In an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy that leaves many questions unanswered, the court held that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had not adequately taken into account the religious beliefs of baker Jack Phillips.

In fact, Kennedy said, the commission had been hostile to Baker’s faith, denying him the neutral consideration he deserved. While the justices split in their reasoning, only Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

Kennedy wrote that the question of when religious beliefs must give way to anti-discrimination laws might be different in future cases. But in this case, he said, Phillips did not get the proper consideration.

“The Court’s precedents make clear that the baker, in his capacity as the owner of a business serving the public, might have his right to the free exercise of religion limited by generally applicable laws,” he wrote. “Still, the delicate question of when the free exercise of his religion must yield to an otherwise valid exercise of state power needed to be determined in an adjudication in which religious hostility on the part of the State itself would not be a factor in the balance the State sought to reach. That requirement, however, was not met here.”

Phillips contended that dual guarantees in the First Amendment — for free speech and for the free exercise of religion — protect him against Colorado’s public accommodations law, which requires businesses to serve customers equally regardless of “disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, or ancestry.”

Scattered across the country, florists, bakers, photographers and others have claimed that being forced to offer their wedding services to same-sex couples violates their rights. Courts have routinely turned down the business owners, as the Colorado Court of Appeals did in the Phillips case, saying that state anti-discrimination laws require businesses that are open to the public to treat all potential customers equally.

There’s no dispute about what triggered the court case in 2012, when same-sex marriage was prohibited in Colorado. Charlie Craig and David Mullins decided to get married in Massachusetts, where it was legal. They would return to Denver for a reception, and those helping with the plans suggested they get a cake from Masterpiece bakery...

Also at Memeorandum.

Donald Trump Blames the System (VIDEO)

At NYT, "Donald Trump, Losing Ground, Tries to Blame the System":

WASHINGTON — Donald J. Trump and his allies are engaged in an aggressive effort to undermine the Republican nominating process by framing it as rigged and corrupt, hoping to compensate for organizational deficiencies that have left Mr. Trump with an increasingly precarious path to the nomination.

Their message: The election is being stolen from him.

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump berated the politicians he said were trying to stop his nomination and denounced the Republican Party, which he cast as complicit in the theft.

“Our Republican system is absolutely rigged. It’s a phony deal,” he said, accusing party leaders of maneuvering to cut his supporters out of the process. “They wanted to keep people out. This is a dirty trick.”

His charges built on comments in the last few days by associates, senior advisers and Mr. Trump himself, seeking to cast a shadow of illegitimacy over the local and state contests to select delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

By blaming the process rather than his own inadequacies as a manager, Mr. Trump is trying to shift focus after Senator Ted Cruz of Texas outmaneuvered him in delegate contests in states like Colorado, North Dakota and Iowa, losses that could end up denying Mr. Trump the nomination.

Asked about the appearance of disorganization, Mr. Trump said in an interview, “You have to remember I’m leading.” He added, “I’m more than 200 delegates ahead, so over all, I’m doing very well.”

But in what sounded like a wink-wink aside, he said, “Don’t forget, I only complain about the ones where we have difficulty.”

The new approach is a tacit admission that Mr. Trump’s campaign, which has been so reliant on national news coverage and mass communication via Twitter, has not been able to compete in the often intimate and personal game that is delegate courtship.

His effort to sow doubt about the system plays into the suspicions and anxieties that many of his most ardent backers have about a political process they believe has intentionally disenfranchised them. And it allows Mr. Trump to divert attention from his recent losses in delegate races occurring all over the country.

Mr. Trump has a pattern of claiming fraud when an election does not go his way. And his critics say this kind of misdirection is his specialty...

More.

Time Magazine Spills the Beans: Establishment Support for Ted Cruz is Solely as a 'Vehicle to Stop Trump on the Convention Floor in Cleveland...'

Well, it's quite interesting, to say the least.

Following-up from last night, "Donald Trump Surrogate Paul Manafort Claims Ted Cruz Campaign Using 'Gestapo Tactics' (VIDEO)."

Here's some juicy tidbits from this week's Time cover story, "Can America Learn to Love Ted Cruz?":

After his loss in Wisconsin, Trump’s only certain path to the nomination is to win 60% of the remaining pledged delegates, an unlikely feat. But Cruz would need to win an even less likely 92%. If neither reaches the 1,237 delegates needed on the first ballot in Cleveland, the process will be thrown open to the crowd, whose names are still largely unknown and motivations subject to dispute. If both Cruz and Trump struggle to get majority support after several ballots, there is even a slim chance that a third person, such as current House Speaker Paul Ryan or also-ran Governor John Kasich of Ohio, could wind up the nominee.

As a result, the unity that Cruz now peddles remains more of a wish than a thing. Many people who openly dislike Cruz have simply chosen him as their vehicle to stop Trump on the convention floor in Cleveland – for now...

In Washington, among the so-called cartel of power brokers and party bosses, Cruz has, for the moment, become the best foil to maintain some control over the party, an irony not lost on either his supporters or detractors. Republican insiders have started to compare Cruz to a parking lot, the safest place to keep your car idling for now. “Are you really for Cruz or are you trying to run up Cruz’s delegates so that Trump doesn’t win on the first ballot?” asks Richard Hohlt, a veteran GOP consultant. “That appears to be what’s going on.”

Cruz, in other words, still has his work cut out for him before he can unify his parking lot. There will be more lurches and jolts before anyone accepts the nomination in Cleveland. “There is an ancient Chinese curse,” Cruz told his supporters in Waukesha. “May you live in interesting times.”

"Cruz has, for the moment, become the best foil to maintain some control over the party" https://t.co/ivDmyeBHB4 pic.twitter.com/sniv2C3hRT

— TIME.com (@TIME) April 7, 2016

The prospect of four days of televised political chaos has led GOP chairman Reince Priebus to move in recent days to take back his party....

Meanwhile, there is little mystery about who has the best operation for wrangling, recruiting and securing delegates. From Tennessee to Colorado, Cruz’s delegate-hunting operation has dominated, with his aides confident that around 200 Trump delegates will swing to Cruz after the first ballot. In Virginia, where Cruz finished a distant third, the campaign is hustling to install supporters in the state’s 13 at-large delegate slots. In Louisiana, Cruz is set to pick up as many as 10 more delegates than Trump, despite losing the Bayou State primary by four points. In a show of organizational muscle, 18 of 25 delegates elected at the North Dakota state convention backed Cruz. In Georgia, where Cruz finished a distant third, his allies have dominated preference polls of the party activists showing up at precinct and county meetings. “We’re going to make sure we get dealt four aces,” says a member of Cruz’s delegate operation. “You don’t just want Cruz supporters. You want fighters. At the national convention, there will be more browbeating and arm twisting than you can imagine.”

Consider what has been happening in Arizona: Trump romped to victory in the state on March 22, crushing Cruz with 47% of the vote. The win netted Trump all 58 of the state’s delegates–but only for the first ballot. Cruz’s operatives in the state have been working for weeks to secure activists who are inclined to support the Texas Senator once they’re no longer bound to Trump. The result is an intimate lobbying campaign, carried out through phone calls and texts, emails and in-person contacts at party gatherings and Tea Party functions, gun shows and forums held by taxpayer groups.

“You’re not trying to move thousands of people,” says Constantin Querard, Cruz’s Arizona state director. “These meetings usually have 30 to 200 people. It’s feasible to contact everyone.” Cruz boosters estimate that anywhere from half to 90% of the Arizona delegates will switch to Cruz after the first ballot.

Cruz has made the shadow campaign a personal priority. While Trump planned his next megarally, Cruz left the campaign trail three days before the critical Wisconsin primary to speak to the North Dakota state convention in Fargo. Cruz also found time to campaign in Wyoming, with only 29 delegates. “It’s good old-fashioned grassroots politics,” says Quin Hillyer, a conservative columnist who is part of a group that has met to discuss how to stop Trump. “Cruz and his team are showing that they’re masters at it.”

At least so far. The result in Wisconsin, where Cruz trounced Trump 48% to 35%, by no means ends the suspense. The coming terrain in the Republican battle will be far friendlier to Trump than the landscape of the past two weeks, and Trump has signaled a retooling of his operation to get back on track. The real estate developer still polls above 50% in his home state of New York, which votes April 19, and has been endorsed by Governor Chris Christie in nearby New Jersey, which votes on June 7, where the popular-vote winner will take home all the delegates...

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton Hold Strong Leads in New York Ahead of Primary, Poll Finds

Trump holds a 36-point lead over Ted Cruz in New York, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll.

At WSJ:

Trump, Clinton hold strong leads in New York ahead of state’s primary, WSJ/NBC/Marist poll finds. https://t.co/UCr1m1SPBo

— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) April 12, 2016

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton hold double-digit leads in New York and are poised to regain their footing in their home state’s primaries next Tuesday, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll finds.

On the Republican side, Mr. Trump holds a 33-point lead over his closest rival, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, 54% to 21%, while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails both, as the top pick of 18% of likely Republican primary voters.

Mrs. Clinton maintains a 14-point lead in the Democratic contest, outpacing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 55% to 41% among likely Democratic primary voters. The former secretary of state’s lead is built on strength among women, African-Americans and Democrats age 45 and older.

The survey results will be welcome news to the two front-runners, who have both lost ground in recent weeks. Mr. Trump is looking to bounce back from a decisive loss in last week’s Wisconsin primary, while Mrs. Clinton has lost eight of the last nine Democratic contests.

“Right now, the front-runners look like they will erase recent setbacks and add significantly to their delegate margins,” said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey. “New York is not likely to enhance the hopes of those trying to close the gap in the delegate hunt.”

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump remain the clear leaders in their parties nominating contests. Mrs. Clinton has a particularly strong advantage because of her support from her party’s so-called superdelegates, the elected officials and other party leaders who have a say in determining the presidential nominee.

Mr. Trump is in a tougher spot because he is in a race to collect the 1,237 delegates required to clinch the nomination before the party gathers in Cleveland to determine the nominee. He has so far won 743. A big win in New York would help him reset his campaign narrative, after he surrendered delegates to the Cruz camp at a string of recent state party conventions.

On Monday, Mr. Trump, prompted by the result of the Colorado contest in which Mr. Cruz won all 34 delegates, complained that the GOP delegate-selection process, which differs from one state to the next, was established by party bigwigs to prevent political outsiders like him from winning the nomination. “The system is rigged, it’s crooked,” he said in an interview on Fox News.

At the same time, he acknowledged that two of his children won’t be able to vote in the New York primary because they missed the registration deadline. “They feel very, very guilty,” he said.

The Republican contest in New York, like the Democratic race, is limited to voters who have registered with the party.

Mr. Trump leads his two remaining rivals by at least a two-to-one margin among just about every demographic group in the New York electorate, among them women, college graduates and those primary voters who practice a religion—three groups with which he often struggles.

New York will award 95 Republican delegates next Tuesday. A candidate can win all of the delegates from any given congressional district if he eclipses the 50% mark...

And get this:

In the latest poll, New York Republicans were also asked about the biggest question hanging over the GOP contest: What should happen if no candidate enters the convention this summer with a majority of delegates, the threshold for clinching the nomination.

A large majority—64%—thinks Mr. Trump should win the nomination if he has the most delegates, even if he falls short of a majority, the poll found.

If Mr. Trump doesn’t win the nomination, most primary voters also said they would oppose any effort to crown someone who didn’t run for president this year, throwing cold water on speculation that party leaders should nominate House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) or some other Republican who sidestepped the primary. Some 59% said the nominee should be someone who ran in the primaries, while 32% said it would be acceptable to have a nominee who didn’t...

More at that top link.

The party bosses are clueless if they think a "dark horse" nominee at a "brokered" convention is gonna fly.

RELATED: At NY1 News, "NY1/Baruch College Poll: Trump Leads Rivals by 43 Percentage Points."

Sounds a little too big of a margin, but hey, if Trump can clear 50 percent, it'll be winner-take-all for the delegates.

Donald Trump Surrogate Paul Manafort Claims Ted Cruz Campaign Using 'Gestapo Tactics' (VIDEO)

Manafort's not just any old surrogate. He's an old GOP hand who was "the delegate-hunt coordinator" for Gerald Ford's 1976 convention floor fight in Kansas City, Missouri.

So, Manafort, along with Donald Trump himself, was pushing aggressively today to delegitimize the Colorado Republican state party convention, where Ted Cruz swept all of the state's 34 delegates to the national party convention in Cleveland. Boy, everything's a mess, and it's getting nasty out there.

At Fox News, via Memeorandum, "Trump slams GOP nominating process as top aide accuses Cruz of 'gestapo tactics' to win delegates."

And watch, from Greta's "On the Record" this afternoon:

Colorado Preschoolers Indoctrinated with Homosexual Marriage Curriculum

At iOWNTHEWORLD Report, "Four-year-old preschooler expelled in the name of LGBT tolerance":

A 4-year-old Aurora girl was kicked out of a preschool last month when her parents raised questions about books read in her class, including ones that told the stories about same-sex couples and worms unsure about their gender.

Her mother, R.B. Sinclair, sees it as sex education and wanted to opt her daughter out of those discussions.

Instead, school officials from Montview Community Preschool & Kindergarten in Aurora — run as a private, parent cooperative — explained the stories were part of the school's anti-bias curriculum, and because the discussions are embedded through the day, they told her that opting out was not possible.

Sickening.

It's bad enough in grade school. But they keep pushing depraved leftist indoctrination down to the younger ages.

Obama's Environmental Pollution Agency

From Michelle Malkin, "Obama’s toxic Environmental Pollution Agency: Sexual predators, toxic dumps & data stonewalls":

Here in my adopted home state of Colorado, orange is the new Animas River thanks to the blithering idiots working under President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s just the latest man-caused disaster from an out-of-control bureaucracy whose primary mission is not the Earth’s preservation, but self-preservation.

As always, the government cover-up compounds the crime — which is why the agency’s promise this week to investigate itself has residents across the Rocky Mountains in stitches. Or tears.

After the EPA and officials and their contract workers accidentally spilled three million gallons of pent-up toxic sludge on August 5 from a defunct mine in San Juan County that hadn’t operated since 1923, EPA apparatchiks delayed notifying residents for more than 24 hours. They vastly underestimated the volume and spill rate of gunk. Then, while refusing to release data, EPA head Gina McCarthy flew to the glowing river to fecklessly declare that the water “seems to be restoring itself.”

The cleanup costs for the Colorado spill alone are estimated at $30 billion. Small farmers, ranchers and tourist-related businesses will be reeling for years to come — yet the EPA is simultaneously pushing forward with Draconian ozone regulations (based on cherry-picked junk science) that will punish the state’s residents with no discernible health benefits.

If only Mother Nature could help wash away the institutionalized corruption that has been leaching from Obama’s EPA headquarters since Day One:

–BP oil spill data doctoring. Former White House Director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner and the EPA suffered no consequences after they repeatedly lied and cooked the books in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill in 2010. Browner, who pulled the puppet strings of then-EPA head Lisa Jackson, misled the public about the scope of the disaster by falsely claiming that 75 percent of the spill was “completely gone from the system.” Then she falsely claimed that the administration’s initial report on the disaster was “peer-reviewed.”

The Interior Department inspector general also singled out Browner for misrepresenting the White House’s blue-ribbon science panel, which opposed a six-month drilling moratorium, and exposed how she butchered their conclusions to justify the administration’s preordained policy agenda.

Browner, an inveterate left-wing crony lobbyist/activist, left office without so much as a wrist slap. Brazen data doctoring and destruction are her fortes. As EPA head during the Clinton administration in the 1990s, she was held in contempt by a federal judge after ordering a staffer to purge and delete her computer files. Browner had sought to evade a public disclosure lawsuit by conservative lawyer and author Mark Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation.

–Email evasion and transparency trouncing. While Browner was doing her dirty work as Obama’s unaccountable eco-czar, Jackson busied herself creating sock-puppet email personalities to circumvent public disclosure rules as the agency crafted radical climate-change policies in secret. She learned the tricks of the trade from Browner. Jackson admitted to using the pseudonym “Richard Windsor” on one of at least two separate secret government accounts. Competitive Enterprise Institute fellow Christopher Horner discovered the elaborate ruses in 2012. The agency had stonewalled Horner’s FOIA requests on the use of alias accounts at the agency; CEI sued to force the administration to comply.

In December 2012, Jackson resigned amid multiple investigations. Not a wrist slap. Not a scratch. In March of this year, a federal judge blasted the agency for avoiding a separate FOIA request by Levin’s Landmark Legal Foundation related to sock-puppet email accounts created by Jackson and others “who may have delayed the release dates for hot-button environmental regulations until after the Nov. 6, 2012, presidential election.”

Apple Computer hired Jackson in 2013 (and all of her multiple personalities). Two months ago, the company proudly announced that it was promoting Jackson to “vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives” and head of the company’s “global government affairs and public policy teams.”

–Enabling sex predators and porn addicts. Last month, the EPA inspector general finally testified on Capitol Hill about the agency’s chronic mismanagement of alleged sexual perverts on the payroll. One employee “engaged in offensive and inappropriate behavior toward at least 16 women, most of whom were EPA co-workers,” the IG reported. Supervisors “were made aware of many of these actions and yet did nothing.”

Well, not exactly “nothing.” The employee was actually promoted to assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Homeland Security — a position he used to harass six more women...

More.

Michelle Malkin Slams Environmental Protection Agency on Animas River Contamination

Michelle was unusually fired up yesterday.

At Twitchy, "‘Make it stop!’ Michelle Malkin pounds EPA for unwelcome response to river contamination."

Only on rare occasions that I spell this out, but it's necessary. Fuck you @epa #environmentalpollutionagency ==> https://t.co/lksq2Vs75P

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) August 12, 2015

Plus, watch, at RT America, "RAW: Aerial view of wastewater contaminated Animas River."

And at Blazing Cat Fur, "WATCH EPA Chief Finally Apologize (Not Really) for Toxic Colorado River Spill." Be sure to click through for the Ezra Levant commentary at the video.

Rocky Mountain Land Library

This is where I want to be.

At the New York Times, "Envisioning a Colorado Haven for Readers, Nestled Amid Mountains of Books":

SOUTH PARK, Colo. — The project is striking in its ambition: a sprawling research institution situated on a ranch at 10,000 feet above sea level, outfitted with 32,000 volumes, many of them about the Rocky Mountain region, plus artists’ studios, dormitories and a dining hall — a place for academics, birders, hikers and others to study and savor the West.

It is the sort of endeavor undertaken by a deep-pocketed politician or chief executive, perhaps a Bloomberg or a Buffett. But the project, called the Rocky Mountain Land Library, has instead two booksellers as its founders.

For more than 20 years, Jeff Lee, 60, and Ann Martin, 53, have worked at a Denver bookshop, the Tattered Cover, squirreling away their paychecks in the pursuit of a single dream: a rural, live-in library where visitors will be able to connect with two increasingly endangered elements — the printed word and untamed nature.

“It’s everything, really,” Ms. Martin said of the role the project has played in her life, and that of her husband, Mr. Lee. “It’s not really about us. It’s something for Colorado, for this region.”

They have poured an estimated $250,000 into their collection of 32,000 books, centering the collection on Western land, history, industry, writers and peoples. There are tales by Norman Maclean; wildlife sketches by William D. Berry; and books on beekeeping, dragonflies, cowboys and the Navajo. The couple said that groupings of books would be placed around the ranch, organized by theme: mining, railroads, fur trade, Native American tribes, natural history, astronomy.

Their library has a broad range of potential audiences, they said, from elementary school pupils to literature enthusiasts and Ph.D.s.

“The connection to nature — we know this place will give that to people,” Mr. Lee said. “Even if they don’t pick up a book.”

More.

The Dark, Dangerous Side of Marijuana

Very dark. Very dangerous.

It's a bad drug. Bad for you. It does bad things to your mind. And it leaves a trail of bad recriminations for those in the path of abusers.

From Susan Shapiro, at the Los Angeles Times, "Cannabis crazy: It doesn't just describe the move to legalize weed. It could happen to you":

I know the dark side. I'm ambivalent about legalizing marijuana because I was addicted for 27 years. After starting to smoke weed at Bob Dylan concerts when I was 13, I saw how it can make you say and do things that are provocative and perilous. I bought pot in bad neighborhoods at 3 a.m., confronted a dealer for selling me a dime bag of oregano, let shady pushers I barely knew deliver marijuana, like pizza, to my home. I mailed weed to my vacation spots and smoked a cocaine-laced joint a bus driver offered when I was his only passenger.

Back then Willie Nelson songs, Cheech and Chong routines and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High's” Jeff Spicoli made getting high seem kooky and harmless. My reality was closer to Walter White's self-destruction from meth on TV's “Breaking Bad” and the delusional nightmares in the film “Requiem for a Dream.” Everyone believed you couldn't get addicted to pot.

Turns out I could get hooked on carrot sticks. Marijuana became an extreme addiction for me. I'm not alone. Nearly 17% of those who get high as teenagers will become addicted to marijuana, according to the 2013 edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that up to half of daily marijuana smokers become addicted — an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S...

Very dark. Very bad. And of course, the "progressive" left is pushing it, and hard.

Leftists. Destroying American society, any which way they can. It's scary sometimes, man.

Obama Criticized as More Concerned with Burnishing Legacy Than with Helping Democrat Candidates

Suck it Democrats.

Y'all backed this dirtbag inexperienced community organizer for POTUS. You're stuck with this failed cluster now, and that's YOUR legacy.

Suck it up.

At LAT, "Democratic candidates worry Obama is helping their rivals":

For months, the White House has insisted that President Obama would do all he could to help his party in the midterm election. Now that he’s started, some Democrats wonder whether he could help a little bit less.

In a rocky return to the campaign trail, Obama has served up campaign fodder for Republican opponents in a formal speech and in an off-the-cuff interview. He’s been heckled by immigration activists angry about his decision to delay executive action on deportation. On Sunday, he watched a chunk of his audience head for the exits — apparently to avoid traffic — before the end of his stump speech.

The slip-ups have even extended to the usually disciplined first lady, who campaigned in Iowa for Senate candidate Bruce Braley but repeatedly called the congressman by the wrong last name. After she went back Tuesday for a do-over, a White House news release got Braley’s name right but his title wrong.

Democrats have witnessed the performances, cringed and complained, offering a preview of the finger-pointing that might come if the party fares poorly in the Nov. 4 election.

“It doesn’t open up a new line of attack, but it freshens one right as voters are tuning in,” said a campaign advisor, one of several Democrats who would not be quoted by name while discussing the president’s effect on elections.

The focus of much of their frustration has been Obama’s off-message comments, which undermined a key strategy for many Democratic candidates — to distance themselves from the unpopular president.

Several Democratic strategists and campaign advisors noted Obama’s blunders were minor problems compared with the drag his sunken approval rating is putting on their candidates.

Still, they saw in the missteps a window into a president’s mind-set and his political operation. They blamed a White House political team disconnected from the tough realities of campaigning and a president better at selling himself than his party...

Ah, far-left Sturm und Drang  --- you gotta love it!

More at that top link.

The 'Colorado Model' Goes Thud

This is just ticklish.

From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "Republicans are poised to make big gains in the state Democrats thought would be a national model for liberal governance":

Alamosa, Colo.

The political class is so focused on what Democrats may lose Nov. 4 that it has largely missed what the party already has lost. So much for the much-vaunted “Colorado Model.”

Nothing has buoyed the progressive left more in recent years than a self-satisfied belief in that blueprint, Exhibit A in their promise of a new Democratic majority. The party poured money into the Centennial State, building an activist infrastructure honed to outspend and attack Republican candidates. These messages were aimed at what was described as an ascendant coalition of liberal whites moving to the state, and minorities—who would join to keep Colorado blue for decades.

It seemed to be working. Democrats, beginning in 2004, would ultimately take from Republicans the state legislature, the governorship, both U.S. Senate seats, key House districts and a variety of statewide offices. The media pronounced a new Democratic dominance of the Mountain West, and the left promised exportation of its model far and wide.

Or not. If Colorado is serving as a model for anything these days, it’s the risks of Democratic overreach. Sen. Mark Udall has trailed GOP Rep. Cory Gardner in every poll since September. Gov. John Hickenlooper is trailing Republican Bob Beauprez in poll averages. Republicans are poised to take back the state Senate. Democrats recently pulled funding from the only Colorado U.S. House seat they had targeted, that of GOP Rep. Mike Coffman.

The party’s biggest mistake was thinking its recent electoral victories—based largely on a superior campaign game—translated into a mandate for liberal governance. Colorado long has been, and remains, a pragmatic state. It’s a place that for decades gave Republicans the state legislature and Democrats the governor’s mansion. It loves its political independents, folks like former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who it elected in 1992 as a Democrat and re-elected in 1998 by an even bigger margin as a Republican.

No surprise, the state hasn’t appreciated Mr. Obama’s ideological agenda. Some 22,000 residents just found out they’re losing health insurance; some 200,000 more face cancellations next year. Residents are worried about Ebola and the terror threat, frustrated by falling incomes, disturbed by Washington scandals. The president’s approval rating—in supposedly liberal-ascendant Colorado—is 40%...

More.

Children May Get Marijuana-Laced Candy on Halloween

Police warning, via the U.K. Independent.

And remember to thank a prog for making your Halloween a real-life nightmare:

US police warn marijuana sweets may end up in children's Halloween trick-or-treat bags http://t.co/fOHFs74v8h pic.twitter.com/NnyxkyOfbv

— The Independent (@Independent) October 18, 2014

VIDEO: Black Thug Shoots Newlywed Soldier and Kills His Pregnant Wife, No Word from Leftist RACE-BAITERS!

Same --- and despicable --- as it ever was.

Via Clash Daily.

Public Opinion Moving in Favor of Marijuana, Even as Medical Research Raises Fresh Alarms

From William J. Bennett and Robert A. White, at the Wall Street Journal, "Legal Pot Is a Public Health Menace":

The great irony, or misfortune, of the national debate over marijuana is that while almost all the science and research is going in one direction—pointing out the dangers of marijuana use—public opinion seems to be going in favor of broad legalization.

For example, last week a new study in the journal Current Addiction Reports found that regular pot use (defined as once a week) among teenagers and young adults led to cognitive decline, poor attention and memory, and decreased IQ. On Aug. 9, the American Psychological Association reported that at its annual convention the ramifications of marijuana legalization was much discussed, with Krista Lisdahl, director of the imaging and neuropsychology lab at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, saying: "It needs to be emphasized that regular cannabis use, which we consider once a week, is not safe and may result in addiction and neurocognitive damage, especially in youth."

Since few marijuana users limit themselves to use once a week, the actual harm is much worse for developing brains. The APA noted that young people who become addicted to marijuana lose an average of six IQ points by adulthood. A long line of studies have found similar results—in 2012, a decades-long study of more than 1,000 New Zealanders who frequently smoked pot in adolescence pegged the IQ loss at eight points.

Yet in recent weeks and months, much media coverage of the marijuana issue has either tacitly or explicitly supported legalization. A CCN/ORC International survey in January found that a record 55% of Americans support marijuana legalization.

The disconnect between science and public opinion is so great that in a March WSJ/NBC News poll, Americans ranked sugar as more harmful than marijuana. The misinformation campaign appears to be succeeding.

Here's the truth. The marijuana of today is simply not the same drug it was in the 1960s, '70s, or '80s, much less the 1930s. It is often at least five times stronger, with the levels of the psychoactive ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, averaging about 15% in the marijuana at dispensaries found in the states that have legalized pot for "medicinal" or, in the case of Colorado, recreational use. Often the THC level is 20% or higher.

With increased THC levels come increased health risks. Since Colorado legalized recreational use earlier this year, two deaths in the state have already been linked to marijuana. In both cases it was consumed in edible form, which can result in the user taking in even more THC than when smoking pot. "One man jumped to his death after consuming a large amount of marijuana contained in a cookie," the Associated Press reported in April, "and in the other case, a man allegedly shot and killed his wife after eating marijuana candy." Reports are coming out of Colorado in what amounts to a parade of horribles from more intoxicated driving to more emergency hospital admissions due to marijuana exposure and overdose....

There are two conversations about marijuana taking place in this country: One, we fear, is based on an obsolete perception of marijuana as a relatively harmless, low-THC product. The other takes seriously the science of the new marijuana and its effect on teens, whose adulthood will be marred by the irreversible damage to their brains when young.

Supporters of marijuana legalization insist that times are changing and policy should too. But they are the ones stuck in the past—and charting a dangerous future for too many Americans.

Althouse Has the Must-Reads on MoDo's Mary Jane O'dose

See, "Maureen Dowd went to Colorado, ate some marijuana candy, and had an 8-hour freakout":

I'm surprised she's willing to write openly about violating federal criminal law. On-the-books felony laws would be enough to silence me, but I would also think that a person who at least poses as smart wouldn't want to admit that she made the classic idiot's mistake of choosing edible marijuana — which takes some time to kick in — eating some and then — after not feeling enough — eating some more.

Yeah, it's surprising alright --- surprising that a liberal 62-year-old New York Times columnist is so clueless about marijuana.

More at Althouse, "Maureen Dowd 'got the warning... She did what all the reporters did. She listened. She bought some samples...'" (And at Memeorandum.)

Shifting Marijuana Attitudes Could Spur More Legalization

Actually, shifting attitudes will spur more legalization. It's only a matter of time. But then, it's also only a matter of time before we witness the devastating social fallout. It ain't gonna be pretty.

At the Los Angeles Times, "As marijuana attitudes shift, this may be a year of legalization":

SEATTLE — The new year is shaping up to be one of the marijuana movement's strongest ever.

The first legal pot storefronts in America opened to long lines in Colorado 20 days ago. Washington state is poised to issue licenses for producing, processing and selling the Schedule I drug — once officials sift through about 7,000 applications.

Signature gatherers have been at work in at least five states, including California, to put marijuana measures on the ballot in 2014. On Wednesday, organizers announced they had gathered more than 1 million signatures in favor of putting a medical marijuana measure before voters in Florida, a high-population bellwether that could become the first Southern state to embrace pot.

"Florida looks like the country as a whole," said Ben Pollara, campaign manager for the Sunshine State's effort. "If Florida does this, it is a big deal for medical marijuana across the country."

RTWT.

Folks were also getting a laugh out of Matt Drudge yesterday:

POT BOWL! http://t.co/gtMloG2LEF

— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) January 20, 2014

Or, as Robert Stacy McCain noted:

Really: Seattle vs. Denver? It's the Sinsemilla Super Bowl!

— Robert Stacy McCain (@rsmccain) January 20, 2014