Hurricane's silver lining

Restaurants, chefs rally to help feed those affected by Harvey

Photo and caption credit: Houston Chronicle

Don Surber finds the silver linings in Hurricanes:

The people of Houston and elsewhere in Texas showed a cooperation that shamed the politicians. Guys in boats were trolling their neighborhoods searching for people to rescue. . . .

A nation drunk on politics suddenly was watching people struggle to survive four feet of rainfall.

That was sobering.

America changed. Instantly.

His column is here. And I hope he's right.

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Another step toward censorship: Diamond and Silk

image credit: Mint Press News

Recently, Cleveland Tea Party blogged on the cancellation of Pamela Geller’s PayPal account on her blog. There are other blatant examples of attempts to shut down discussions, but I just found this one, from last month:

Diamond and Silk rip YouTube, 

say 95% of videos demonetized over Trump support

Those of us who love watching these two gals in their support of all matters Trump should be flabbergasted and aghast. And it’s getting worse. According to the report in the Washington Times, here’s YouTube's chilling explanation:

News of the largely demonetized channel comes less than two weeks since the company announced plans to fight inappropriate content.

“We’ll soon be applying tougher treatment to videos that aren’t illegal but have been flagged by users as potential violations of our policies on hate speech and violent extremism,” the company announced Aug. 1 on its official blog. “If we find that these videos don’t violate our policies but contain controversial religious or supremacist content, they will be placed in a limited state. The videos will remain on YouTube behind an interstitial, won’t be recommended, won’t be monetized, and won’t have key features including comments, suggested videos, and likes.”

"Inappropriate content?" “Our policies on hate speech and violent extremism”? “Controversial religious or supremacist content”? Who is making these judgments?

Enough patrons called and pressured PayPal into reinstating Pamela Geller’s account. 

Long term solution for YouTube and other Google powered platforms: trust busting? DOJ or FCC?  Short-term solution? From a web search:

How to Contact YouTube Support

By phone: (650) 253-0000. This is Google's catch-all phone number and can also be used for YouTube inquires.

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Spot the Media Bias

Following FLOTUS fashions may not be a top priority, but the coverage provides such a vivid illustration of the dishonesty corruption in the media today. This screen shot from Philly.com was posted recently by a reader at Conservative Treehouse; I had missed it.

The headlines are bad enough. But if you cannot embiggen the image to actually read Fashion Editor Elizabeth Wellington's captions below the two photographs (by tapping on the image itself), click to see it on your screen here.

Related: Remember last week’s media meltdown over Melania’s stiletto heels as she walked from the White House to the chopper en route to boarding Air Force One to fly to Texas?

Oh, the horror of it all. Where is her respect for the job at hand? Smelling salts, please. Er, she is showing her respect for the White House and her role as FLOTUS.

Behold the media’s double standard:

 photo retrieved from Tradition in Action

Do you remember seeing this image of FLOTUS disembarking from Air Force One? It's easy to access on your search engine, but this photo did not exactly make the media rounds at the time. (Sorry if you can't find your Eye Bleach.)

Gif source here.

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Standing for the flag or kneeling with some of the Browns

Sometimes it’s the little things that you can do. Cleveland.com reported on the President of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association Steve Loomis’s announcement that officers would not participate in opening ceremonies with the Cleveland Browns:

Cleveland's police union will not be holding the American flag for a pregame ceremony for the Brown's first game Sept. 10, Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis said late Friday.

Union members had planned on participating in the flag ceremony for the first game on Sept. 10 until some Browns players kneeled during the National Anthem before a preseason game, Loomis said in an interview with cleveland.com.

The players not standing for the national anthem is offensive because of the sacrifices that people make that allows these guys to enjoy the success that they have, Loomis said. While they're benefiting from protection of the flag they are kneeling in disrespect of it, he said.

Joining the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association out of respect for our flag is “the union that represents the city's dispatchers, EMTs and paramedics.”

Cleveland.com also reported on Police Chief Calvin Williams’s response:

we as Cleveland Police Officers strive to open the lines of communication with all of our citizens--athletes and enthusiastic Browns fans alike. Who are we kidding?! We are CLEVELAND!! And we stay strong together. We stand together. 

Moving forward, I can tell you that we within the Cleveland Division of Police are in communication with the Cleveland Browns Organization as we have been in the past. We want to hear from our players, the fans and our citizens of this great city. We want to bridge the gap. We want to talk.

I look forward to a continued partnership with our CLEVELAND athletes, our community and a great BROWNS season!!!"

Loomis respects our flag and National Anthem and takes a stand. As I see it, Cleveland Police Chief Williams is not taking that stand. 

You can email both Steve Loomis and Chief Williams to let them know what you think:

• Steve Loomis at <Steveloomis[insert the ‘at” symbol]aol.com>
• For Police Chief Calvin Williams, click here and choose “City Services” and “Division of Police” in the drop-downs. 

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By the Book: The Strange Death of Europe

Amazon cover

Just finished Douglas Murray’s frightening must-read The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam. If America needed another wake-up call, this is it.  This book examines the paramount problem of today: uncontrolled immigration. And from all angles, based on his research and his extensive travels, particularly in Europe. 

Murray covers history, philosophy and religion, Islam and Christianity, demographics, cultural suicide, political correctness, ideologies, political landscapes, corruption, voter preferences vs government “leaders”, humanity, immigration pros and cons, good stories, bad stories, as well as the what-do-we-do-now and current dilemma scenarios. His conclusions about Europe are a preview of coming attractions here in the USA. 

And it's cheap on Kindle.

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Happy Labor Day

art credit: pinterest

Happy Labor Day!

The Cleveland Air Show on Labor Day weekend

Always thrilling and very noisy.

  

Note: Final performances tomorrow.

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