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[Rudy Tirre]

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~ Featuring ~

Diminishing Beauty

by Tom McLaughlin

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Lindsey Graham on Senate Trial: “I’m going 

to tell the president, ‘no,’ to his witness request”

by sundance

{ theconservativetreehouse.com } ~ On the cusp of an impeachment vote in the House, Senate Judiciary Chairman states today: “I’m going to tell the president, ‘no,’ to his witnesses request” when the articles of impeachment reach the Senate... Senator Graham wants a quick presentation of the articles of impeachment by the House managers; a quick defense against the charges by President Trump’s lawyers; and then an immediate vote on the articles without hearing from witnesses. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said he will not support calling any witnesses in the upcoming impeachment trial against President Trump, including witnesses Trump wants to summon. “I’m going to tell the president, ‘no,’ to his witnesses request because I think what is best for the country is to get this behind us as soon as possible,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said Wednesday. The House is set to impeach Trump Wednesday night on two articles charging him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Senate will hold a trial in January, and Democrats and Republicans are battling over the proceedings. Obviously unstated by Graham is his own personal interests to ensure that nothing about U.S. politicians financially benefiting from Ukraine money-laundering is presented by team Trump.  A quick dismissal serves the interests of the deepest senate.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/18/lindsey-graham-on-senate-trial-im-going-to-tell-the-president-no-to-his-witness-request/  

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Republican Rep. Clay Higgins Delivers Doom

And Gloom Floor Speech On Impeachment: ‘I

Have Descended Into The Belly Of The Beast’

by CHRISTIAN DATOC

{ dailycaller.com } ~ Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins delivered an extremely dark speech during Wednesday’s impeachment debate on House floor... “I have descended into the belly of the beast. I have witnessed the terror within, and I rise committed to oppose the insidious forces which threaten our Republic,” Higgins opened. “America’s being severely injured by this betrayal, by this unjust and weaponized  impeachment, brought upon us by the same socialists who threaten unborn life in the womb, who threaten First Amendment rights of Conservatives, who threaten Second Amendment protections of every American patriot, and who have long ago determined that they would organize and conspire to overthrow President Trump.” “We don’t face this horror because the Democrats have all of a sudden become constitutionalists. We are not being devoured from within because of some surreal assertion of the socialists’ newfound love for the very flag that they trod upon.” Higgins claimed that the impeachment inquiry is a direct result of all the things the Democrats fear, including the “true will of we the people.” “They are deep established D.C.,” he continued. “They call this Republican map flyover country. They call us deplorables. They fear our faith. They fear our strength. They fear our unity. They fear our vote, and they fear our president.” “We will never surrender our nation to career establishment D.C. politicians and bureaucrats,” Higgins closed. “Our republic shall survive this threat from within. American patriots shall prevail.”   https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/18/belly-of-the-beast-house-floor-speech-impeachment-video/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11307  

VIDEO:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmOQDoSs-H0&feature=emb_title

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Mark Levin Blasts FISA Judge Rosemary 

Collyer: 'You Chose to Sit on Your Hands!'

by MICHAEL VAN DER GALIEN

{ pjmedia.com } ~ On his popular conservative radio show on Tuesday, Mark Levin lashed out at FISA Judge Rosemary Collyer. Collyer rebuked the FBI for their "irregularities" in the FISA process... This criticism, Levin explained, is too little and especially too late. "I want to admonish this judge," Levin said. "She had an opportunity to act when it mattered. Back on April 20, 2017, the Landmark Legal Foundation under its president, Pete Hutchison, filed a motion -- a secret motion -- with this court. And it was a motion informing the judge of the violations that had occurred based on published reports because it was known back in April of 2017. Some of it, if not much of it. And those exhibits were provided to the judge. Five days after we filed that [...], the judge ruled" to deny the request arguing there was "no matter pending before the court with respect to which such an appearance would be proper." "That was always a disingenuous reply," Levin went on to say, "but this judge, and apparently she changed her mind today. Apparently she changed her mind more than 2.5 years later and realized: 'Oh, I have jurisdiction. The matter is pending I suppose.' Although that never made any sense because a judge is free, even when a matter is done, to call parties before them in their courtroom if in fact the judge believes wrongs have been committed in the court and against the court.""And so Judge Collyer did not protect the federal judiciary, she did not protect her own courtroom, she did not protect the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," Levin said. "For more than 2.5 years, she allowed these perpetrators to get away with what they did. And she could have brought an end to this. She could have had an evidentiary hearing or a contempt hearing if you will, and she chose not to." "Now she's jumping on the bandwagon," Levin continued, "after the OIC report, after FBI Director Wray has announced 40 different reforms that he's going to take a look at. After I and others, including Mike Lee, have said, 'you know, we have to abolish the court.' The court has failed to do its job and I suspect they won't do its job." "Only now does Judge Collyer issue her decision. Only now. Because part of the problem is Judge Collyer and any other judge" working as a FISA judge, he said. "They don't read these documents. Over a 1,000 of them were presented to the FISA courts in 2018 and only one was denied. That is almost a 100 percent approval record. Now that's absurd," Levin explained. "So Judge Collyer has some answering to do. And if Congress is serious about getting to the bottom of this, she and others need to be called before Congress in a legitimate oversight function, not to investigate her for criminal reasons, but to find out exactly what she and others did."...  https://pjmedia.com/trending/mark-levin-blasts-fisa-judge-rosemary-collyer-you-chose-to-sit-on-your-hands/?utm_source=pjmedia&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=7220442bc3498cb5e2d68f3cb4d11680&recip=18305623   

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Limbaugh: The 1 thing Dems haven't 

calculated in Trump impeachment

by wnd.com ~ As they prepared to vote Wednesday to impeach President Trump, there's one thing Democrats haven't calculated... said talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh on his national broadcast. "It is possible that Donald John Trump is going to feel liberated like he hasn’t felt his entire term," Limbaugh said. "I mean, after this, what else can they do? After this, they will have thrown everything they’ve got — and he’s still going to be there. "He said impeachment "may backfire on them in ways they are not even calculating yet." "Can you imagine an even more energized Trump? Can you imagine an even more focused Trump? Can you imagine an even more controlled, angry Trump? Can you imagine a Trump more focused on his agenda than ever? Because after today, what more can they do?" he said. Limbaugh said Democrats are "digging their grave." "liar-Pelosi and some of the women were wearing black. Have you seen that? They're wearing black to signify what a horrible day. They're wearing black because this is the beginning of their funeral. I said yesterday that they're in the process of digging their grave. Today the grave gets dug deep to handle a whole lot of Democrat political carcasses and bodies that are gonna end up in this grave once we get to the election aftermath in November," he said. Limbaugh said Democrats, the media and the left all know the impeachment effort has "bombed out." "They know that this is a gigantic failure and a gigantic zero. And they know that they are trending in the wrong direction. They also know that there's nothing here. Nobody is reacting to a president being impeached in any way different than they react to any news story during the week," he said. He said the media believed they were going "to bring public opinion to their side. They are that arrogant, and they are that cocky. They are that certain that the media being on their side would result in a massive wave of public opinion supporting them." However, he said, "It's going the other way." Trump wrote a letter to liar-Pelosi on Tuesday charging she was using politics to subvert the Constitution." They’re not used to this kind of behavior. They’re not used to this kind of fighting back. They’re not used to the intensity of the way Trump fights back. They are not used to a Republican not giving up. They’re not used to Republicans not caving," he said. "Donald Trump represents a form of adversity that they literally have no experience in dealing with. And it’s obvious that they don’t know how to deal with it. And that frustrates them. They already think Trump is barely above the level of scum on the life chart. They can’t believe that somebody barely above the level of scum is outsmarting them, outstrategizing them, outenergizing them, outlasting them. And it’s now all starting to show," he said. Limbaugh then got personal about what will happen in the Senate. "All scumbag-Schumer and the Democrats can do is blowhard, pass gas — verbal gas. They can’t do anything, folks. They don’t have the power to call any witnesses."...   https://www.wnd.com/2019/12/limbaugh-1-thing-dems-havent-calculated-trump-impeachment/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=wnd-breaking&utm_campaign=breaking&utm_content=breaking   

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How Israel Defended Itself 

from 2,600 Rockets in 20 Months

by Seth Frantzman

{ meforum.org } ~ In 1991, during the Gulf War, more than forty Scud missiles were fired at Israel. At the time, the entire country was included in one early warning zone, so millions of people were warned of the incoming rockets... even though most of them lived in areas that were not threatened. Today there are more than 1,700 distinct zones in Israel that enables the country to warn only the communities under direct threat. It is the latest development in Israel's early warning technology and worked effectively during the latest round of fighting with Gaza. In Operation Black Belt, Israel struck a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander on November 12, leading to two days of rocket fire by the PIJ against Israel. More than 400 rockets were fired, reaching as far north as the outskirts of Tel Aviv, around 80 km away. These are just some of the 2,600 rockets that have been fired from Gaza since March 2018. Although dozens of Israelis were lightly injured in the recent round of violence, the system of sirens across the country helped guide people to shelters while enabling Israel's air defense to intercept the projectiles. The sirens and alerts are often called "red alerts" and are linked to the IDF's Home Front Command, which has become increasingly data and tech savvy. Having more precise warning systems will enable Israel to alert the most correct areas during a future conflict. This system has been tested numerous times over past years and it has improved. Using the latest technology to reach civilians, on the roads or in the fields, will save lives. It is now a question of what technologies Israel's adversaries will bring to the field and the IDF's ability to anticipate the next threats...  https://www.meforum.org/60125/how-israel-defends-itself-from-rockets?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=d55df338e9-MEF_Frantzman_2019_12_18_08_34&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-d55df338e9-33703665&goal=0_086cfd423c-d55df338e9-33703665&mc_cid=d55df338e9&mc_eid=f33b9e6c12  

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Federal court rules scumbag/liar-nObamacare mandate unconstitutional but sends 

case back to lower courts

by Kimberly Leonard

{ washingtonexaminer.com } ~ The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals returned a closely watched case on scumbag/liar-nObamacare back to the lower courts, declaring the law unconstitutional but in need of further analysis... The 2-1 panel  decision means that scumbag/liar-nObamacare's future is unlikely to be resolved before the 2020 elections. Had the judges not returned the case to the lower courts, it likely would have been appealed to the Supreme Court and faced a decision on its survival just ahead of Election Day. The decision landed on the same day that the House of Representatives debated impeaching President Trump. It also occurred just hours before the enrollment period for scumbag/liar-nObamacare sign-ups was set to end for the year. The suit in the case, Texas v. Azar, was originally brought by Republican state officials, but it had the support of the Trump administration. Democrats have used the case as ammunition that Trump is committed to taking away people's coverage and the protections scumbag/liar-nObamacare provides, particularly its prohibition on insurers turning away sick people or charging them more. The lawsuit came from Republican state officials who said that scumbag/liar-nObamacare must be struck down because the 2017 GOP tax overhaul zeroed out the healthcare law's fine on the uninsured. Republicans said the fine had been central to scumbag/liar-nObamacare and that the rest of its provisions would not work and should not stand without it. When Supreme Court justices reviewed the fine on the uninsured in 2012, they determined it was constitutional because it could be seen as a tax. Because the tax was now $0, the 5th Circuit cited the Supreme Court case and wrote that the mandate was unconstitutional "because it can no longer be read as a tax." But the judges did not decide whether the mandate could be separated from the rest of the healthcare law, or whether other parts should fall, instead punting the question back to the district court to "provide additional analysis."...  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/federal-court-rules-obamacare-unconstitutional-but-sends-case-back-to-lower-courts?utm_source=breaking_push&utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=push_notifications&utm_source=WEX_Breaking%20News%20Alert_12/18/2019&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WEX_Breaking%20News&rid=5261 

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Diminishing Beauty

 

by Tom McLaughlin

{ tommclaughlin.blogspot.com} ~ Beauty literally stops me in my tracks. It can annoy my wife when she’s in the car because I’ll hit the brakes unexpectedly, pull over, and reach into the back seat for my camera. It might happen anywhere and if I don’t capture that right away it can fade in minutes or even seconds. Photography is about light after all, and light is often transitory, especially with scattered clouds and a storm either building or breaking up. A shaft of light will illuminate something against a dark background and I have a brief window in which to get the shot. By the time I’ve stepped out of the vehicle, turned on the camera and framed the image, a cloud may have blocked the sun and the opportunity passes.

When I am successful though and I pull up the image later on my computer, it’s a great feeling. The photos I like best all convey whatever feeling I had when I saw the scene. If the photo kindles a similar feeling in others it will sell. The ones I’ve been paid for are images of things — landscapes, street scenes, coastal scenes, loons, sunsets, and so forth. Images of my loved ones are among my favorites but I don’t put them on the website. One did get on accidentally once when I was re-sizing a batch of coastal scenes and a shot of my grandchildren looking for crabs on a beach got mixed in somehow. I didn’t realize it until someone ordered a collection of photos and I pulled up the full-resolution version of that shot from my computer. Now it hangs in a northern Maine nursing home.  

Shots of my grandchildren when they’re young convey an innocence that has universal appeal. Young children are genuine; they lack pretense. With a zoom lens they don’t usually know I’m photographing them. They see me with a camera so often that they’re seldom self-conscious about it. When they become teenagers, however, that natural, unaffected demeanor fades. They’re not sure who they are themselves and that uncertainty comes through in photos — especially when they know I’m shooting in their direction. Almost never do I ask people to pose because I much prefer candid shots.  

All imagery interests me, but especially other photographs. Again, my taste runs toward candid. We’re all bombarded by photos of men and women with physical beauty, but when photographed for advertising purposes they lose their charm. Subjects are paid to be pretentious. In my eyes, that disingenuousness comes through more strongly than anything else the advertiser intends. It’s worse when the models’ affectations have a sexual bent which is increasingly the case. 

Often we see photographers following subjects in revealing dress and snapping away as the models try to look alluring. They strike various poses with ostentatious “come hither” expressions. Such scenes are meant to convey the alleged glamour of high fashion but it never works for me. The fakery is so obvious I can never get past it. It must work with most viewers though because that sort of advertising is ubiquitous. Some could be called soft porn, and it is always pushing limits of propriety.  

And pornography which no one could call soft has become dangerously widespread with the internet. Images depicting sex without love would define it, and in my youth, Playboy Magazine was considered porn. It might not be labeled such today because still photographs of the Playboy type have given way to digital video. It’s a plague the young and old contract with the cell phones in every pocket. As with drugs and alcohol, pornography is addictive. Continued use requires stronger doses to reproduce the initial thrill and teenagers today produce their own with cell phone cameras. Our culture is increasingly coarsened in the process. Porn destroys relationships from teenage romances to marriages and professional counselors warn us there’s no end in sight.  

Consumers are mostly male but females are catching up. A 2011 article the UK Guardian claimed one in three users were female and 17% of women were addicted. Porn actors degrade themselves and watchers degrade themselves vicariously. How widespread is pornography? Statistics vary: anywhere from 15-75% of Americans use it regularly. Extensive revelations of Jeffrey Epstein’s rich and powerful associates abusing underage girls seem to mirror trends in porn users toward child porn, the only kind that’s still illegal.

For how long will it remain so? That depends on how much society values the innocence of youth. Will Epstein Attorney Alan Dershowitz prevail in his arguments to lower the age of consent? Will Republican congressmen persuade Attorney General William Barr to prosecute internet porn producers more vigorously? There are forces at work both pushing and pulling.  

Beauty, defined as: “a combination of qualities that pleases the intellect or moral sense,” is becoming endangered when seeing images of fellow human beings. Beautiful landscapes, however, remain plentiful.  

https://tommclaughlin.blogspot.com/2019/12/diminishing-beauty.html