Beautiful Charlie Gard Has Died

This story makes me almost cry.

Following-up from the other day, "Our Son Charlie Gard Had a Real Chance of Getting Better."

See Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, "BUT SARAH PALIN WAS THE CRAZY ONE FOR BELIEVING THAT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE INVARIABLY LEADS TO DEATH PANELS: Parents of baby Charlie Gard say he has passed away."

And at the Telegraph U.K., "Charlie Gard dies: Baby's life-support withdrawn in hospice as parents 'denied final wish'."

Our Son Charlie Gard Had a Real Chance of Getting Better

At the Telegraph U.K., "Charlie Gard: Mother's full statement - 'we are so sorry that we couldn't save you'."

Defund Planned Parenthood

Via Debra Burlingame, on Twitter:

pic.twitter.com/4Xpfr133gT

— Debra Burlingame (@DebraBurlingame) June 22, 2017

Democrats Turn to Bernie Sanders to Rebuild the Party

So how's that working out? Not too well, if recent controversies are any measure.

Remember last week? Here, "Bernie Sanders Wants Democrats to Focus on Economic Populism, Not Social Justice Cultural Marxism (VIDEO)."

Well, then, check out WaPo, and this David Weigel piece that came out just when Bernie and the DNC chair got embroiled in this populism vs. culture debate.

See, "Democrats turn to Sanders and his star power to rebuild the party":

NEW: Democrats turn to @BernieSanders and his star power to rebuild the party, via @daveweigel https://t.co/43G6Tp93zF

— Ed O'Keefe (@edatpost) April 19, 2017

LOUISVILLE — Earlier this week, before heading downstairs to speak to nearly 3,000 Ken­tuckians, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) reminisced about his 2016 presidential campaign. After he had gained steam, and his rallies had become arena-size events, he was struck by the difference between his crowds and those at Democratic Party fundraisers.

“We’d have a rally with five or ten thousand young people out, a great deal of energy,” Sanders said between bites of a steak sandwich. “Then I’d walk into a room and there’d be a thousand people from the Democratic Party. You were in two different worlds — one full of energy, one full of idealism. And the other, full of good people — I don’t mean to put them down — who are the bedrock of the Democratic Party.”

At that moment, Sanders was on the second day of a week-long, cross-country speaking tour with Democratic National Committee Chairman Thomas Perez. The DNC was picking up half the bill for the 12-seat chartered plane as well as the venues, including the downtown Louisville Palace.

As Sanders spoke, Perez was a block away, meeting with party leaders who — like most Democratic leaders — had backed Hillary Clinton for president. Later that evening, they would take a stage and praise Sanders, who is not a Democrat, for reinvigorating their party. A chairman who defeated Sanders’s preferred candidate to run the DNC was now touring as his opening act.

“Our values are aligned on so many of the critical issues that confront the nation and the Democratic Party,” Perez said in an interview. “When people actually look at the platform of the Democratic Party — they’ll say, ‘We need community college!’ — well, look at the platform. When they say, ‘We need a $15 minimum wage’ — look at the platform.”

The first 24 hours of the tour revealed both the strength and the seams in the strategy. It began in Portland, Maine, on Monday evening, where a crowd wrapped around the State Theatre to see the “Come Together, Fight Back” tour. Maine’s Democratic Party leaders flitted through the crowds with clipboards, encouraging fans of Sanders to sign up.

They had competition. A group of rogue “Berniecrats” had brought clipboards of their own, with petitions encouraging the senator to run for president in 2020 as an independent. When the rally began, a mention of Perez was met with boos audible over mild applause; the loudest heckling came from a man whose T-shirt declared his support for the Green Party.

Once onstage, Perez described his Democratic Party as a vessel for activists, with a platform they could love. It was activists, he said, who stopped the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. It was activists who had passed a ­minimum-wage hike, which Maine’s Republican governor had halted.

“In these first 100 days, the most remarkable thing is not what Donald Trump did — the most remarkable thing is what you did across the county,” Perez said.

The chairman left the stage, and a disembodied announcer introduced Sanders. This time, there were no boos; over 48 minutes, Sanders mentioned Perez’s DNC only once...

More.

Bernie Sanders Wants Democrats to Focus on Economic Populism, Not Social Justice Cultural Marxism (VIDEO)

Following-up from Friday, "What Defines a Democrat?"

Here's more background on the conflict, at Politico, "DNC rally with anti-abortion candidate fuels backlash." And from Melissa McEwan, at Shakesville, "Bernie Sanders, My Autonomy Is Not Negotiable." (Via Memeorandum.) (Ms. Melissa probably gives the perfect argument for the left's social just position. Economic issues just aren't as important as social issues.)

I have to admit I still get a kick out of Bernie, even though he's a doctrinaire Marxist. Frankly, I love him taking it to the radical left's social justice warriors, hammering 'em on the very things that have caused the political obliteration of the Democrats.

Here's his interview on this morning's Face the Nation:

What Defines a Democrat?

Well, cultural Marxism, of course.

But apparently old-fashioned Marxism still has some pull, heh.

At the New York Times, "At a ‘Unity’ Stop in Nebraska, Democrats Find Anything But":

NEW: The left's biggest star is a class warrior, while Dems increasingly are defined by culture.

The collision >https://t.co/KkqkepRgvj

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 22, 2017

WASHINGTON — Rarely has a municipal election in a midsize city ignited such a fierce national debate over what defines a Democrat. But the election this spring for mayor of Omaha is pitting abortion rights activists against economic populists and threatening the party’s unity as it regroups to confront President Trump.

Part of the twist: The populist side’s standard-bearer, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, is not even a Democrat.

“This is very raw,” said Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, conceding that “after the presidential election, there is still this ongoing debate about identity politics versus economic opportunity.”

Mr. Sanders and the new leadership of the Democratic National Committee touched a party sore spot this week when they took their “Unity Tour” to Omaha to rally for a mayoral candidate who opposes abortion rights. Mr. Sanders, repurposing the themes of his presidential bid, told a crowd of about 6,000 on Thursday night that the candidate, Heath Mello, 37, would be a future star in the Democratic Party who could help break the grip of big money on the nation’s politics.

Ilyse Hogue, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a prominent abortion rights advocacy group, called it a betrayal, especially of the women who have fueled the “resistance” that has energized Democrats since Mr. Trump’s unexpected triumph.

“It tells your most active political base that we’re just negotiable political property,” Ms. Hogue said of the statement sent by Mr. Sanders and Representative Keith Ellison, the Democratic National Committee’s new deputy chairman, who appeared with Mr. Mello. “Since the election, women have been engaged on the front lines of every progressive fight. So what message does it send for the party to start this tour with an anti-choice candidate?”

Mr. Mello, a practicing Catholic, supported a Nebraska State Senate bill requiring that women be informed of their right to request a fetal ultrasound before an abortion. The anger over that position reflects a long-running argument among Democrats over whether, or how much, to support candidates who depart from party orthodoxy on abortion.

But the ferocity of the dispute this time reveals a much deeper debate on the left: Should a commitment to economic justice be the party’s central and dominant appeal, or do candidates also have to display fealty to the Democrats’ cultural catechism?

An Omaha mayoral election on May 9 may seem an unlikely place for this fight to play out, but a collision was inevitable. Despite being the most sought-after Democrat in the country today, Mr. Sanders is actually an independent and self-described democratic socialist animated chiefly by class uplift. But the clamor for his attention comes as the party is increasingly defined by its positions on issues related to race, gender and sexuality.

The wounds from his clash with Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary clearly have yet to heal, in large part because the overarching debate between them has yet to be reconciled.

Mr. Sanders has emerged as the most popular active politician in America, according to a new survey by Harvard University and Harris Insights and Analytics, and his presence is demanded in Democratic campaigns no matter the political tint of the region. Yet his recent moves have infuriated some progressives.

First, Mr. Sanders campaigned with Tom Perriello, the Virginia Democratic candidate for governor who supported some anti-abortion measures during a single term in Congress (though Mr. Perriello has apologized for doing so).

Then Mr. Sanders pointedly declined to campaign for Jon Ossoff, a Democrat running for an open House seat outside Atlanta, deeming him insufficiently populist. (Mr. Sanders issued a statement on Friday offering his support for Mr. Ossoff.) Not only is the Ossoff race the highest-profile campaign of the moment, but the Republican nominee, Karen Handel, is loathed by the abortion rights movement for her role as an official at the Susan G. Komen foundation in separating that group, the nation’s largest breast cancer organization, from Planned Parenthood.

Then Mr. Sanders arrived in Omaha for Mr. Mello, after persuading the Democratic National Committee to make the rally a part of a party-sanctioned tour.

Coming against the backdrop of Mr. Trump’s election and the wave of new, female-led activism in opposition to a leader they believe is a repugnant misogynist, many female progressive leaders are adamant about keeping reproductive rights front and center. And they see the matter of Mr. Mello as an opportunity to send a statement to the party’s leadership.

“It is incredibly important that people within the progressive movement and Democratic Party realize that women are sick of this” stuff, said Erin Matson, a Virginia-based abortion rights activist, “and we’re not going to take it anymore.” (She used a more pungent word than “stuff.”) “What Bernie doesn’t seem to realize,” she added, “is that the abortion rights movement has really bucked up and gotten some tough ovaries in the last couple of years.”

Tom Perez, the party’s newly elected chairman, had been campaigning with Mr. Ossoff in Georgia when Mr. Sanders was in Nebraska. But in interviews leading up to the event, Mr. Perez was unapologetic about supporting Mr. Mello, who has recently said that although he personally opposed abortion, he would uphold abortion rights as mayor...

Actually, I don't think you can be a pro-life Democrat. These people are all about killing babies. If you're pro-life, you're out.

But keep reading.

Tomi Lahren's the Biggest Whiny Baby (VIDEO)

She's been having a hard time of it since the fallout last month. See, "Tomi Lahren's Pro-Choice?"

She's whiny, and actually stupid, if she thought Glenn Beck was going to cut her loose without a battle.

At the Dallas Morning News, "'I will not lay down and play dead — ever,' Tomi Lahren tells 'Nightline'":

Tomi Lahren, the conservative commentator known for her incendiary quick takes, said Wednesday on Nightline that she's disappointed and hurt by her employer's actions since she voiced her "pro-choice" stance last month.

In an interview on The View, Lahren said she "can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say I'm for limited government but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies."

Days after she made the statement, her show on the The Blaze was put on hold. On Friday, Lahren filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against her former boss, Glenn Beck, and his right-wing media firm.

The Blaze said last week that Lahren has not been terminated.

In a prepared statement, a Blaze spokesman said, "It is puzzling that an employee who remains under contract  (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her."
The spokesman said also Beck would not comment directly on the suit.

Lahren is being paid through September when her contract is up, but told Nightline host Byron Pitts that she was blindsided and feels lost without her job.

"The way I look at things I’m not doing what I was contracted to do — produce a television show, political talk show — I no longer get to do that," she said. The suit also alleges that The Blaze won't allow Lahren to access her Facebook page, where she has 4.2 million followers. She has not posted on the page since March 19, two days after The View episode aired.

The 24-year-old told Nightline that she has been silenced and that her ability to communicate with her followers has been wrongfully taken away...

Shoot, she's getting paid. And she's got until September. Hey, maybe write a book while you're chillin'? Work on your tan or something?

Keep reading.

Hannah Smothers, Feminist Psycho

These people are seriously weird.

And notice the woman's selfie with feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

At the Other McCain, "Feminist @HannahSmothers_ Confirms the Worst Stereotypes of Feminism."

Tomi Lahren's Pro-Choice?

As hot as she is, there's always been something that's bugged me about Tomi Lahren.

Sure, she's a little too cock-sure about everything. Sometimes she comes off as superficially informed. But when I saw her speak at Comic Con last June, I noticed that she seems kinda mean. She didn't come off as a friendly sympathetic figure. Not at all. Mind you, she took the stage alongside Mary Katharine Ham, who's the nicest lady you'd ever want to meet -- and a smart-as-hell conservative who held her own against blowhard Bill O'Reilly on Fox News for years -- so yeah, Lahren might have had a little competition in that regard. But she just exuded meanness nevertheless.

After the panel, fawning young conservative women swarmed the podium, many of them attempting to get near Ms. Tomi, to get a selfie or even perhaps exchange business cards, or phone numbers, or whatever it is young hipsters exchange these days. I would have liked to say hello, to give Ms. Tomi kudos on her considerably impressive record of conservative commentary. But on second thought I said nah. She seems mean, as noted, but she also came off as stuck up. You know, she's the hot blonde chick you wanted to go out with in high school but would never have been given you so much as the time of day had you approached her. If a young hotsie-totsie like this deigned to speak to you during high school it was most likely for you to get the hell out of the way, you beta male nincompoop. So with that, I made off into the convention hall, not to worry about it too much. I'd scored a couple of photos of the woman's phenomenal legs, so I guess that was an added bonus of attendance.

So now here comes Truth Revolt with the report that Ms. Tomi's pro-choice? WTF?!! You can't be conservative and be pro-choice. It's like you can't be an all-American male and not like women in bikinis. It's just not a thing.

Well, I guess it is, for the young so-called conservative Ms. Tomi.

See, "'Conservative' Tomi Lahren's Pro-Abortion Stance Pleases 'The View'."

Like I said, sometimes I doubt Ms. Tomi's too smart. Definitely nice legs though.

.@TomiLahren explains why she's pro-choice: "Stay out of my guns and you can stay out of my body, as well." pic.twitter.com/0kFXJ7oL9L

— The View (@TheView) March 17, 2017

There's No Feminism Without the Baby-Killing

From Twitter the other day:

Feminism is an anti-male, anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-capitalist hate movement controlled by the Democrat Party. pic.twitter.com/pcNKfyBapM

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) March 9, 2017

Heh. Can you tell me what feminism's all about, lol? https://t.co/40AizcJ0JT

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) March 10, 2017

You don't need a Ph.D. in gender studies to understand what "crazy" means. https://t.co/AaaSHW2d5a pic.twitter.com/qO1wotXgHV

— The Patriarch Tree (@PatriarchTree) March 10, 2017

And today, from Katha Pollitt, at the Nation, "Can a Feminist Be Pro-Life?"

Is there pro-life feminism? @kathapollitt replies to @LNEnriquez and @dleonhardt https://t.co/j1iuZemHvY

— The Nation (@thenation) March 10, 2017

These are bad people. Very bad.

David Garrow, Liberty and Sexuality

Garrow's book is cited at the Los Angeles Times, "Norma McCorvey, once-anonymous plaintiff in landmark Roe vs. Wade abortion case, dies at 69."

The L.A. Times obituary, by the way, is much better, way more honest, than the New York Times's. A key point: McCorvey never had an abortion.

In any case, here's Garrow's book, Liberty and Sexuality: The Right to Privacy and the Making of Roe v. Wade.

Why Isn't Norma McCorvey's Obituary Trending at Memeorandum, or Anywhere Else?

She's not trending because leftists couldn't care less about "Jane Roe," of the Supreme Court's notorious Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.

Leftists don't care because they used McCorvey like so many sanitary napkins stuffed down the throats of conservative activists. McCorvey was used, chewed up, and spit out. She had become a pro-life activist who spent the last couple of decades seeking to overturn the decision that bore her name. For that, McCorvey became essentially a non-person, no longer useful to a movement responsible for at least 50 million abortions since Harry Blackmun hellish ruling outlining a "woman's constitutional right" to terminate a "fetus" in the first three months of pregnancy. It's been a holocaust of "unwanted" pregnancies ever since.

McCorvey's death is frankly big news, important news. But you wouldn't know it by looking at Memeorandum, which is covered with all kinds of stories detailing treasonous leftist designs to bring down the democratically-elected government of Donald J. Trump.

Here's the New York Times' obituary, "Norma McCorvey, 'Roe' in Roe v. Wade, Is Dead at 69."

And at Memeorandum, crickets:



Her obituary's not trending on Twitter either.

She was thrown away by the left like a piece of trash. And that tells you something about the non-value of human life to anyone who proclaims they're a "progressive."

Have More Children

Hey, we wanted more, but kids aren't cheap, and we have no family nearby to help at home with the children.

But yeah, folks should have more. Environmentalists love abortion because women can murder their unborn children because climate change. (Yeah, leftists are evil like that.)

At Quillette, which is a great magazine (that I don't read enough):

If You’re Reading This Essay, You Should Probably Have (More) Childrenhttps://t.co/tQ1uGRS8D8

— Quillette Magazine (@QuilletteM) February 2, 2017

Unhinged Jessica Valenti: 'The War on Abortion is Just Beginning'

Here's Ms. Valenti, at the Guardian U.K.:

The war on abortion is just beginning | Jessica Valenti https://t.co/ApomJTiYh5

— Guardian news (@guardiannews) January 26, 2017

A common #MarchForLife sign: "I regret my abortion." But regretting a decision doesn't mean others shouldn't have the right to make one.

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 27, 2017

I hope that journalists ask #MarchForLife protesters how they feel about women going to jail for abortion (which is already happening!)

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) January 27, 2017

If you’ve ever wondered what the oft-used and much maligned word “patriarchy” looks like, you need look no further than a picture of Donald Trump, surrounded by white men, reinstating the global gag rule. The policy, which bans funding any international organization that dares to even talk about abortion, has contributed to thousands of women’s deaths across the globe.

The executive order was just the beginning. In the short time Trump has been president, his administration has set a disastrous course for women’s health and rights. On Tuesday, days after historic marches that put millions of women on the street globally, Republican congressmen introduced the first ever federal ‘heartbeat bill’ - a policy that would ban abortions after six weeks, well before most women even know they’re pregnant.

That same day, the House passed a bill that would make the dangerous and discriminatory Hyde Amendment – which prevents federal funds from covering abortion, even in cases of fetal abnormalities and maternal health issues – permanent. The bill, which targets poor women, would also impact abortion coverage for women with private insurance. Congressional republicans have even introduced a federal ‘personhood’ bill that would define life as beginning at conception.

While the bills will not likely get far, the new administration is sending a clear message – they’re keeping Trump’s promise to punish women who have abortions, and rolling back hard-won rights. These are far-reaching and radical policies that quite literally kill women. There is no overstating just how harmful they are.

So you’ll excuse me for laughing off recent suggestions that feminists embrace “pro-life” women in the name of inclusivity. You don’t get to feel bad about being banned from the treehouse when you’re in the middle of setting the trunk on fire...

Leftism (and feminism) is a death cult, and women like Valenti are the Joseph Mengeles of the movement.

In other words, the movement and its partisans are horrifying.

Still more at that top link, if you can be bothered, lol.

Rebecca Traister Unhinged

Will Roe v. Wade be overturned anytime soon?

I don't think so, but leftists have become deranged over the prospect, as well as over new regime's threat to so-called "reproductive freedom."

Now, while I don't think Roe will be taken down, I do expect more movement to weaken Planned Parenthood, including defunding the left's key abortion provider (genocide provider).

In any case, get a glimpse into leftist "pro-choice" thinking with this piece from far-left Rebecca Traister, at New York Magazine.

Notice the completely over-the-top rhetoric. It's like worlds are crashing down. An "extinction-level event," in the words of Twitter leftists.

Seriously, these people need to get a grip.

Rebecca Traister breaks down the right's step-by-step attack on access to abortion and contraception https://t.co/N1XPzeI5vj.

— NYMag PR (@nymagPR) January 10, 2017

7-Year-Old Girl Tells the World That Down Syndrome Is 'Not Scary'

ABC 7 Los Angeles' Leanne Suter tweeted this beautiful story.

Also, on YouTube.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Law (VIDEO)

I forgot we had another blockbuster case due this week.

Unfortunately, this one went the wrong way.

Jan Crawford has an analysis of the ruling, for CBS This Morning, at the video below.

And at LAT, "High court overturns Texas abortion restrictions":

The Supreme Court, in a victory for abortion-rights advocates, has limited the power of Texas and other states to restrict or effectively shut down clinics that offer the procedure.

The justices, by a 5-3 vote, said Monday that Texas lawmakers went too far by imposing unnecessary regulations that had forced most of the state’s abortion clinics to go out of business.

The decision is the court's clearest pronouncement since 1992 on abortion, and it makes clear that states may not impose health regulations that severely restrict the right to abortion...

More.

Also at Memeorandum.

Europe or America? Who's More Pro-Choice? (VIDEO)

Here's Elisha Krauss, for Prager University:

Baby Sees Mom's Face for the First Time with Eyeglasses (VIDEO)

I almost started to cry watching this video.

So precious.

'Were Your Children Human Beings' Before They Were Born? Debbie Wasserman Schultz Refuses to Answer (VIDEO)

She's scum.

Of course she refuse to answer the question, but if she had she'd have to admit that abortion is murder.

At the Daily Signal, "How a Pro-Choice Democrat Responded When Asked ‘Were Your Children Human Beings’ Before Birth?"

Watch, "Hey, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Were Your Children Human Beings Before They Were Born?"