Foolish Sci Fi Geeks Celebrate Chinese Government’s New Sci Fi ‘Award’

-By Warner Todd Huston

A left-wing science fiction site hosted by the Gawker chain of websites recently posted a silly, fawning article revealing that the Chinese government is sponsoring a new “major science fiction award.” It was a piece that wholly ignored the autocratic and murderous history of the Chinese government and ridiculously treated this “award” as a legitimate celebration of the arts.

The website i09,com posted a piece (June 4, “The Chinese Government is Setting Up Its Own Major Science Fiction Award“) by blogger Andrew Liptak who revealed himself to be absolutely clueless about how oppressive China is and seemed to assume that China–being just like every western country–is just doing the world a service with its new “award” instead of creating a scheme whereby an authoritarian government will control “art”–or at the very least holding up state propaganda as worthy of awards.

“This is pretty interesting,” Liptak says as he begins his slobbering article, “during the latest national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology, chairman Han Qide announced that the country would be setting up a program to promote science fiction and fantasy, including the creation of a new major award.”

Now, let’s first wonder exactly what liberals like Mr. Liptak and his audience would say if the U.S. government–or any western government, for that matter–were to announce it intended to meddle in a field of literature like this. Mr. Liptak would be one of the first to denounce the intentions and to scream that said government would be merely spreading propaganda and not the art of literature. Or at the very least he’d be uncomfortable with the idea of a government promoting art for fear that it would eventually turn to pushing pro-government propaganda.

But in Liptak’s piece we get not a whiff that he should be worried that the Chinese government would use its award not to celebrate art on its own merit but rather to further the communist government’s message.
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Foolish Sci Fi Geeks Celebrate Chinese Government’s New Sci Fi ‘Award’”


Guy Ritchie’s ‘Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ Movie Premiere Swag

-By Warner Todd Huston

For nearly 50 years fans of the hit 1960s TV show “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” had been waiting eagerly to finally get a new UNCLE adventure and the many decades of waiting finally ended in August of 2015 when director Guy Ritchie’s re-telling of the TV series debuted on movie screens across the world. This page is dedicated to some of the swag given out to those lucky few who were invited to the film’s various premieres in nations everywhere.

I personally didn’t make any of the premieres and had to watch the movie like a commoner (after it opened wide in theaters), but I have come across a large number of the items that fans and moviegoers were given at the special screenings as the movie burst forth to such great reviews… but sadly, low audience turnout.

Here is the official trailer of the film to whet your appetite…

As I said, most reviewers loved Ritchie’s vision of U.N.C.L.E. calling it a smart, sexy, 1960s spy extravaganza. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, not enough movie goers turned up at theaters to make it a hit. Oh, it was no dismal failure, to be sure, but for old time U.N.C.L.E. fans who were hoping this film would spur a new series of big screen adventures, well, let’s just say the hope ended in disappointment.

There could be a sequel, yet, but it doesn’t look good.

Anyway, here is a photo essay of the items handed out at the premieres and a few other assorted items associated with the film. These are all in my collection unless otherwise noted. I’ll start with the most common items and after that get to the ones which are a bit farther and fewer between.


One of the 27 X 40 movie posters seen outside the theaters. This one was also handed out in an 11X17 version at theaters (I also have that one).


Another one of the more common posters for the film


These vinyl signs where what one would see in the frames over the door of the theater at the local multiplex. These, of course, weren’t given to moviegoers.


These gray T-Shirts were handed out by the hundreds and are the most common shirt for the new U.N.C.L.E.


There’s no spy stealth if you’re wearing THESE big buttons on your shirt, but fans will know ya, anyway!


Sunglasses were featured heavily in this stylish flick, so the promo department made up some special U.N.C.L.E. sunglasses for fans to take home.


Of course, no smart phone was in the movie as it was an early 1960s period piece, but everyone has cell phones today, right? These were all over the place.


Some moviegoers were lucky enough to be given one of these very nice hot/cold metal tumblers.


Every spy needs to stay hydrated, so these water bottles were also given to fans.


Now we are starting to get to the items that were given out in smaller numbers. This all black T-Shirt with yellow lettering isn’t nearly as common as the gray one above.

For those who had too many U.N.C.L.E. items to carry, these handy vinyl shoulder bags were also distributed.


Just in case you need to take some notes in your spy notebook, they gave out these ball point pens, too.


If you were lucky, you were handed a nice, high quality black baseball cap with your favorite U.N.C.L.E. slogan embroidered onto it.


Now we are back to cell phones, again. Even though you aren’t supposed to use your phone in the theater, they did give out a few external cell phone re-chargers like this one. But not many of these were given out.


I think these computer memory sticks were only given to fans in Europe (and it’s a pen, too). But I may be wrong about that.


This external iPhone speaker does not have the U.N.C.L.E. logo on it. The outside clamshell, though, is also white like many of the other plastic items, so it does match the color scheme of many of the handouts.


One of the very cool costume choices in the film was Illya’s flat cap. So, anticipating that, the promo department made up at least two different versions of it for fans. These were not handed out a whole lot, though. The darker gray one is of higher quality that the tannish one, I must say.


The swag-makers also made a special shirt for girls, too, and this is the girl’s T-Shirt. It is a long sleeved affair that is long enough to go over the girl’s hips and is slightly flared-out at the bottom almost skirt-like. It has the yellow segment at the bottom with the U.N.C.L.E. logo printed on it.


Fans in Australia were the lucky recipients of this gold vinyl makeup case, apparently trying to raise interest in the female fans.


If one attended the UK premieres one might come away with a nice catalog put out by the Hawes & Curtis clothing company of clothing “inspired” by the film.


Speaking of the UK, during the release of the Guy Ritchie U.N.C.L.E. movie in Britain you could enter into a contest and the prize was this tiny digital Minox spy camera with a “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” plaque on the front. It resembles the one Minox made decades ago (of course, it took film back then and wasn’t digital). It also came in this wooden presentation box and if you can’t make it out the little plaque is in the lower left corner of the front of the camera body. There were only a handful of these produced and given away during the 2015 premiere in England.

The next few things were handed out only to the press as far as I know.


This full-sized, serviceable backpack is an example of an item available only to members of the press.


This is a very nice Stormtech 35L Waterproof, Rolltop Backpack (WXP-1). This might have been for film crew members. Not a ton of these were made, for sure.


Now, I don’t have this item–YET–but members of the press (at least in New Zealand) were also given an U.N.C.L.E. umbrella. This is a photo of Threads editor Megan Robinson who received her U.N.C.L.E. umbrella when she attended the movie premiere in New Zealand. You can’t clearly see all of the parasol, but you get the idea from Megan’s snap shot. (Photo used by permission)

There were also some special things given out only to those who worked on the film. I have been fortunate enough to have obtained these from various sources.


This gray hoodie sweat jacket was only given to set visitors and movie cast and crew members.


There was also a black crew hoodie as seen above.

The crew also got a quilted jacket by Barbour. With UNCLE on the back of the collar.

These long sleeved shirts were given to members of the UNCLE Second Unit that filmed in Britain and other parts of Europe.

The Second Unit also has a short-sleeved T.

The Second Unit also had an orange sweat shirt.

Then there was the stunt crew shirt.


Here is an example of one of the booklets used to help crew members plan their work days.

So, there you have it, folks. If you went to one of the many premieres across the world in 2015, you might have gone home with some or all of these items.

Now, I know vaguely of a few other items connected to the film shoot. Apparently Henry Cavill (Napoleon Solo) gave the cast and crew a special limited edition coin as a keepsake for working on the film. I’ve never seen one and only heard tell of them second hand. Also there was some sort of photo book assembled for the crew at the end of the project. That is another item I only heard of second hand and have never seen. There may have been a few other stray items here and there and if I learn more about them or actually get my hands on any, I’ll update this post.

Finally, if you have or know of more swag from the 2015 U.N.C.L.E. premiere that I don’t have here, do contact me and let me know.

OTHER ITEMS CONNECTED TO THE FILM
Now for a few items that weren’t given out at premieres but are still associated with the movie in one way or another…

First off, cosmetics company BirchBox put out an U.N.C.L.E. tie-in box of products. The box top had the title of the film on it, a sheet describing the movie inside, and a bunch of skin care products. It also had a multitool with a cardboard sleeve with the film title on it. I have the paper insert and the multitool, but not the rest of the kit.

The next three photos show this offering from September of 2015.


Here is a snapshot of the tickets for the movie.


The Hardees fast food chain gave out UNCLE cups as part of a tie in for the film.


One of the plot lines for the film included the Soviet Illya character talking about the watch his father gave him. This is a Russian-made Pobeda model like the watch that appeared in the film.


Here is a sleeve of unused movie postcards. I am somewhat unclear of where these came from, though.

Finally, the star of the film, Henry Cavill, created a very cool challenge coin just for the cast and crew. These were made and presented by the actor, not the film production.

It also came with this little letter. Sadly, while I have the coin and bag, I don’t have the little letter. But it looks like that above.


The Lack of Logic in the World of #NeverTrump

-By Warner Todd Huston

It seems to me there are some major logical disconnects in the world of #NeverTrump that simply boggle the mind. In fact, in many ways these disconnects make hypocrites out of the #NeverTrumpers.

Before I get to the topic at hand, let me say I fully understand the reasons they don’t like Trump. In fact, I share their sentiment in many ways and I did not support Trump in the primaries. I have also written against him in years past, so there’s that. He seems to me to be more or less a non-commital liberal. He’s no conservative and I prefer conservatives.

I say this to note that I understand their anti-Trump sentiment. Further I agree that if they can’t vote for him they shouldn’t. But I have a major problem with some of their claims for pushing a third candidate–most especially one that is to come out of the blue and at the last second.

One of the main points many #NeverTrumpers use to eschew Trump is that, despite his coming out on top in the primaries, millions of voters voted for other candidates instead of Trump. This, they say, means “most”–or at least a large portion–of the GOP voter base did not want Trump and therefore he isn’t the most popular candidate among the center-right wing of the U.S. electorate.

So, they say Trump is illegitimate because he didn’t *really* get the majority of the GOP primary votes. OK, well and good. Let’s go with that.

Yet, on the other hand, they say they want to run a third party candidate and they say this mythic candidate can win if they focus their campaign only on the states with the largest Electoral College votes. That way he doesn’t have to run a “national” campaign and can focus on a strategic campaign that uses the rules to win instead of one that aims to sweep the whole country and get the largest number of votes.
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The Lack of Logic in the World of #NeverTrump”


Time to Remember The Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World

-By Warner Todd Huston

“From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”–Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day to pause in thanks for the sacrifices made by millions of Americans who died while fighting to preserve freedom, a documentary called “These Hallowed Grounds” reminds us that our war dead are not just interred here at home, but are spread across the world on battlefields almost lost to the memory of far too many of us.

When we think of our military cemeteries, those final resting places of so many American heroes, we usually think of Arlington National Cemetery, certainly. But do we think of the hundreds of American military cemeteries in such places as France, the Philippines, and other nations across the world? Sadly, not many of us do.

If you are like many of us, you may not be very well informed about all the many American cemeteries erected to memorialize our legions of war dead. To correct that deficit the PBS documentary “These Hallowed Grounds” is an excellent way to learn about these bucolic and solemn memorials.

Most Americans know of the World War Two cemetery at Omaha Beach, Normandy, site of one of the 1944 D-Day landings. But there are some twenty-one other cemeteries in eight other countries memorializing our dead from World Wars One and Two and the documentary tells the powerful tale of many of them.

Our many war cemeteries are maintained by the U.S. government’s American Battle Monuments Commission and contain monuments to some 125,000 American war dead. The names of another 94,000 missing soldiers are inscribed into the Walls Of The Missing at these locations and this film takes viewers on an important journey across the world to see and learn about them.
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Time to Remember The Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World”


Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
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Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”


The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

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The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day”


THIS Is Why You Should Hate All Leftists…

-By Warner Todd Huston

There has been a lot of ink spilled about the stupidity of being politically correct (also known as “PC”) and while it is without question many leftist purveyors of this concept imagine they are doing Gia’s work by pushing PCism, the plain fact is it is dangerous thinking and, even worse, illogical and stupid. And Canada’s left-wing Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, gives us the umpteenth reason why you should hate liberals and their idiocy.

The problem with PCism, of course, is that the process becomes the goal. Instead of doing actual good, what you end up with is people more worried about the process and verbiage of PCism than in what being PC will actually do in a real world situation. It leads to mindlessness, not solutions.

Nt long ago the Canadian PM gave us a perfect example of supplanting process with real world solutions when he said Muslim “honor killings” aren’t barbaric. His intentions were to be fair to Muslims, but his actual words ended up excusing the murder of women for daring to love someone other than whom their parents chose.

Trudeau’s stupidity came after a Canadian agency wrote a citizenship guide that said the government doesn’t condone cultural practices that are “barbaric.” The barbarism in question included “spousal abuse, ‘honor killings,’ female genital mutilation, forced marriage or other gender-based violence.”

Now, no western society… in fact, no sane human… should condone any of those things and, yes, they are all barbaric.
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THIS Is Why You Should Hate All Leftists…”


Shift in U.S. Against WWII A-Bombing of Japan is a VERY Bad Sign

-By Warner Todd Huston

On the even of Memorial Day when we take a moment in our busy lives to remember the sacrifice made by millions of soldiers who lost their lives in war since our nation was founded, President Obama went on another apology tour, this time to grovel in front of the Japanese in abject despair for dropping the atomic bomb on them during WWII. Sadly, too many Americans are just as foolish as he if the results of a new poll are any indication. It is all proof that the U.S. is losing its grip on reality.

Before I get too much farther into this business, let me just say to Japan that I am not sorry we destroyed two of your major cities with the A-Bomb. I don’t have even a tiny bit of sympathy for Japan’s loss. They started the war, they murdered and enslaved millions (not hyperbole), they attacked us, and even as their forces were clearly beaten they refused to surrender which would have necessitated perhaps a million more casualties should the U.S. have had to invade to pacify them. They even refused to surrender after we wiped out Hiroshima with a single bomb forcing us to do it again at Nagasaki.

Actions have consequences and Japan’s actions led to what they deserved. Period.

Unfortunately, today too many Americans are starting to regret the A-Bombing of Japan, the bombing that saved the lives of so many Americans and Japanese both. A new poll finds a bare one percent more Americans now disapprove of the bombing than approve.

A new CBS News poll found only 43 percent of Americans still approve of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while 44 percent disapprove. This year’s result compares to 53 percent approving of the bombing in 1990 with 41 percent disapproving.

This is a travesty created by our failed miseducation system.
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Shift in U.S. Against WWII A-Bombing of Japan is a VERY Bad Sign”


New Issue of Marvel’s Captain America Says Criticism of Syrian Refugees is Like Nazism

-By Warner Todd Huston

Marvel Comics is once again re-launching its universe of comic books and in the newest iteration of Captain America readers are told that those who oppose the importation of Muslim “refugees” are somehow as bad as the Nazis.

This month issue number one of the new title Steve Rogers: Captain America will feature long-time Cappy foe the Red Skull, a super villain who originated as a Nazi bad guy in World War Two. And as the preview at Comic Book Resources reveals, the evil Nazi Red Skull delivers a major anti-refugee speech.

“I have just come from Europe–my homeland, in fact,” Red Skull says to a group of thuggish acolytes in the upcoming issue. “And do you know what I saw there? It was an invading army. These so-called ‘refugees’–millions of them–marching across the continent, bringing their fanatical beliefs and their crime with them. They attack our women, and bomb our cities. And how do our leaders respond? Do they push them back and enforce the borders, as is our sovereign duty? Of course not. They say, ‘Here, take our food. Take our shelter. Take our way of life, and then take our lives.’ Despicable.”

Red Skull goes on to ridicule “tolerance” and incite race hate by encouraging the group of men to start a new race war in the name of the evil organization Hydra, another one of Steve Rogers’ long-time foes.

Apparently, as far as Marvel Comics is concerned, if you oppose bringing in hundreds of thousands of illegal Muslim immigrants, then you are as bad as an evil Nazi war criminal.
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New Issue of Marvel’s Captain America Says Criticism of Syrian Refugees is Like Nazism”


In Transgender Argument, a Perfect Example of Liberal Hypocrisy

-By Warner Todd Huston

An article in The New York Times extolling the virtues of pushing transgenderism on high school teens featured a paragraph that perfectly illustrates the hypocrisy of the liberal argument, not just on this issue, but writ large.

According to The New York Times, some students at Green Mountain Union High School in Chester, Vermont, were incensed that school administrators had implemented a transgender policy to allow a single female student who claims to be a boy to use the boys bathrooms and locker rooms at the school.

The school has broken down into two camps, according to the paper’s article, one side in favor of the so-called transgender student and the other against her right to claim to be a male.

Now, the chief argument that leftists make to legitimize forcing all schools in America to implement pro-transgender policies is that we can’t discriminate against kids who feeeel they should be a different sex than what they were born as simply because they feeeel they are right. We are to take their word for their feeeeeelings because if we don’t we are discriminating against them.

This, they say, is *just like* implementing civil rights for blacks. Because, you see, we can’t penalize kids for being transgender because if we do we are punishing them for *what they are* just like we did when African Americans had their rights quashed. Further, we can’t take away these kids’ “freedom” to decide to be the opposite sex nor can we oppose their right to free speech.

But buried in the Times story was a telling paragraph (my bold):
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In Transgender Argument, a Perfect Example of Liberal Hypocrisy”


U.S. Appeals Court Rules Americans Have a Right to Buy and Sell Firearms

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a new ruling the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit maintained that Americans have a Constitutional right to acquire and sell arms.

The Ninth Circuit Court remanded the case of Teixeira v. County of Alameda back to a lower court informing it the court that the Second Amendment and its history protects the rights of Americans to self-defense including the “right to acquire weapons” as well as own them.

This puts a dent in the city of Alameda’s regulations that practically bans the opening of any gun store in the city.
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U.S. Appeals Court Rules Americans Have a Right to Buy and Sell Firearms”


Study: Immigrants Use 41% More in Welfare Benefits Than U.S. Born Recipients

-By Warner Todd Huston

A new study on the use of welfare benefits by illegal and legal immigrants in the U.S. finds that households headed by immigrants use an average of $6,200 in benefits annually, fully 41 percent higher than the rate used by native born welfare recipients.

This study comes on the heels of another study finding that 51 percent of immigrant households are signed up for at least one welfare program.

“Immigrants are such heavy users of welfare not because they don’t work, but because, on average, they have little education and thus earn low wages,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). “If we continue to permit large numbers of less-educated people to move here from abroad, we have to accept that there will be huge and ongoing costs to taxpayers.”

The study, based on the Census Bureau’s 2012 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), notes that the higher use of welfare benefits because by and large the current wave of immigrants are less educated and have fewer needed job skills and are therefore more apt to apply for welfare benefits.
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Study: Immigrants Use 41% More in Welfare Benefits Than U.S. Born Recipients”


Few Other Retailers Joining Target With Pro-Transgender Bathroom Policy

-By Warner Todd Huston

Target’s unpopular decision to force its customer base of mothers and children into mixed-sex bathrooms and changing rooms is creating a huge economic opportunity for other firms — but none have announced plans to exploit the opportunity, according to a survey of press aides and marketing experts.

Still, as retail giant Target continues to stand behind its transgender-friendly bathroom policy allowing shoppers and employees who claim to be transgender choose whatever bathroom they want to use at any given time, few other large retailers are standing with Target and announcing their own such policies.

Some few have announced their own transgender bathroom policies if perhaps informally, including Barnes & Noble booksellers, Hudson’s Bay Co. department stores (owner of Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue), and perhaps unsurprisingly the liberal Starbucks coffee company.

As USA Today reported, Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley said the coffee giant is “looking into additional opportunities to have more gender-neutral signage in our restrooms where jurisdictions allow it.”
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Few Other Retailers Joining Target With Pro-Transgender Bathroom Policy”


CA School OKays Hispanic Students Wearing ‘Dump Trump’ Shirts Even as U.S. Flag Shirts Banned

-By Warner Todd Huston

A California high school has agreed to allow Hispanic students to wear their “Dump Trump” T-Shirts on campus despite a dress code that seems to prohibit them. The controversy is set against a backdrop of a federal court ruling banning U.S. flag shirts in California schools.

Sean Boulton, the principal of Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, a town south of Los Angeles, decided to acquiesce to the request of a group of Hispanic students who wanted to wear their shirts denigrating GOP front runner Donald Trump even as the school’s dress code could be read as prohibiting them.

The school’s dress code for the 2015/16 school year puts a ban on clothing with “inappropriate graphics” and clothing with messages that “denigrates others on account of gender, sexual orientation, race color, religion, ancestry, national origin, handicap or disadvantage.”

Despite those rules, school authorities are now allowing students to wear shirts attacking Trump and his voters.
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CA School OKays Hispanic Students Wearing ‘Dump Trump’ Shirts Even as U.S. Flag Shirts Banned”


How Trump Put Himself in a Corner in Coming Fight With Hillary

-By Warner Todd Huston

He may not be smart enough to realize it yet, but Donald Trump has put himself in a tricky position as he prepares for his looming fight with Hillary Clinton in the coming general election campaign. No matter which way he goes — or if he tries a mixture of approaches — he has a problem.

Trump spent his entire primary campaign shooting from the lip, excoriating his opponents in vulgar terms, bald-faced lying about them, and acting the tough guy. Granted it seemed to work for him as his most ardent followers Obama-like didn’t seem much interested in a serious campaign. It was all about how he made them feeeeeel. But whether Trump likes it or not, the upcoming campaign will not be the same type of campaign he’s waged thus far. Unfortunately for him, no matter what he does he is bound to get in major trouble.

If Trump continues using the same substance free, personal attacks he used during the primary, but aims it instead at Hillary, the media will utterly slay him over it. Unlike how the media gave him a pass for his attacks on Republicans, they’ll do no such thing if he trots out this stuff on Hillary. Of course, the media’s excoriation will just be manna from heaven as far as his most solid supporters are concerned. They’ll point to that and cry that they’ve been right to support Trump all along because “they” are all out to get Trump.

So, in the case of a Trump general election campaign configured as am exact clone of his primary campaign, his followers won’t be the problem for him. It’ll be the uncommitted middle that will shy from such a campaign and that will be a problem for his election. If Trump goes on a major name calling binge against Hillary he will lose anyone who already finds politics disgusting and Trump desperately needs these voters to beat an increasingly bifurcated electoral map.
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How Trump Put Himself in a Corner in Coming Fight With Hillary”


Watch: Dem Chair Gets Cornered On Fox News, Has To Admit Something BIG About Hillary She Didn’t Want To

-By Warner Todd Huston

Recently Democrat National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D, FL, was cornered on Fox News about the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s violations of national security and Schultz slipped up big time in her reply giving an admission that Hillary won’t want to hear..

Schultz appeared on “Fox News Sunday” to defend Hillary Clinton but didn’t do a very good job. Other than sounding a bit halting and confused with her delivery, the core of her argument was that with her email use Hillary didn’t do anything differently than other high profile members of government. But Schultz defeated her own claims with one little line.

First off Schultz said it was “ludicrous” for the FBI to investigate Hillary’s breach of national security laws for sending classified information over a private email server housed in her own home and then deleting tens of thousands of them so they could never be seen.
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Watch: Dem Chair Gets Cornered On Fox News, Has To Admit Something BIG About Hillary She Didn’t Want To”


Obama to Make One More Push Against Guns Before He Leaves Office

-By Warner Todd Huston

As he looks to the exit as the last year of his last term winds down, Barack Obama is about to take one more stab at curtailing the Second Amendment with yet another push to force so-called “smart gun” technology on the firearms industry and it’s a plan even police officers stand against.

Obama has failed to limit the Second Amendment like he had hoped to do when he came into office, but that isn’t for lack of trying and as his last term comes to an end he is once again trying to force the nation’s law enforcement community to set aside their proven, usable firearms and instead begin using problematic “smart gun” technology.

With his latest anti-gun policy, the President is urging federal and local policing agencies to purchase so-called “smart guns” quite despite that there is no current technology reliable enough for law enforcement use. And police say they don’t want to be Obama’s guinea pigs.

According to Politico, already sick and tired of how badly the Obama administration has treated them with years of backbiting since the Ferguson, Missouri riots, the nation’s law enforcement community (both federal and local) are not much interested in helping Obama prove the so far unworkable smart gun technology as a viable option.
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Obama to Make One More Push Against Guns Before He Leaves Office”


Unapologetic Millennial Conservative Has a TOUGH Message for Her Generation

-By Warner Todd Huston

Young journalist Alexis Bloomer has a message for her fellow millennials and it’s one many won’t want to hear. Alexis wants her fellow 20 somethings to “pull their pants up” and start actually contributing to society instead of lazing around and posting social media updates as if that was activism.

Bloomer also has a message to the older generations: “I’m Sorry,” she says. Sorry for the many failings of her arrogant generation.

The journalist said she decided to assess her generation. “As a millennial, I decided to take it upon myself to try to evaluate what’s so wrong with our generation and why they’re so mad at us,” she said on her video posted to Youtube.

But as she looked over her generation she realized that some of the harshest criticism of millennials probably has a lot of validity to it.

“We’re just existing, we’re not really contributing anything to society,” she insisted and then went on to lay out all the accusations against her generation.

“Our generation doesn’t have the basic manners that include no ma’am and yes ma’am,” Bloomer said. “We don’t even hold the door open for ladies much less our elders anymore.”
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Unapologetic Millennial Conservative Has a TOUGH Message for Her Generation”


Chelsea Clinton Spills the Beans on Hillary’s Plans to Confiscate Guns Using the Supreme Court

-By Warner Todd Huston

We here are the Federalist Papers Project have been warning that if Hillary Clinton becomes President she will be a true anti-gun president and will seek to confiscate our guns and put a major crimp in our Second Amendment rights. Now Hilary’s own daughter, Chelsea, is flat out admitting that what we have been saying here is 100 percent correct: Hillary will seek to destroy the Second Amendment.

In an MSNBC broadcast of comments made at a campaign event in Maryland, Chelsea Clinton flat out admitted that her mother would seek to undermine the Second Amendment and take away our rights. Chelsea also specifically noted her mother will stack the Supreme Court with extremist liberals who will follow her policy to destroy the Second Amendment.

“It matters to me that my mom also recognizes the role the Supreme Court has when it comes to gun control,” Chelsea said this month. “With Justice Scalia on the bench, one of the few areas where the Court actually had an inconsistent record relates to gun control. Sometimes the Court upheld local and state gun control measures as being compliant with the Second Amendment and sometimes the Court struck them down.”

“So if you listen to Moms Demand Action and the Brady Campaign and the major efforts pushing for smart, sensible and enforceable gun control across our country, disclosure, have endorsed my mom, they say they believe the next time the Court rules on gun control, it will make a definitive ruling,” Clinton added. “So it matters to me that my mom is the only person running for president who not only constantly makes that connection but also has a strong record on gun control and standing up to the NRA.”
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Chelsea Clinton Spills the Beans on Hillary’s Plans to Confiscate Guns Using the Supreme Court”


Hillary Clinton Hints She’ll Back Gun Confiscation as President

-By Warner Todd Huston

At a recent campaign event on so-called “gun violence,” Hillary Clinton said Americans own too many guns and then said she’d do something about this “problem” when she becomes president. What else could this mean but confiscation?

Clinton was speaking at round-table-like forum on guns held at St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia, where she insisted we have too many guns.

“When it comes to guns? We have just too many guns,” Hillary said to the applause of those in attendance. “On the streets, in our homes, in our neighborhoods.”

She went on to say America must address the “epidemic” of guns and hinted that if she were to become president she would do something about it all. But what would that “doing something” look like?

Well, it must be remembered that last year Clinton spoke positively about the gun confiscation policy imposed on the people of Australia. Clinton said the Australian policy is one “worth considering” and said it could be imposed using the Obama program “Cash for Clunkers” as a model.
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Hillary Clinton Hints She’ll Back Gun Confiscation as President”


Flashback: Bernie Sanders Kicked Out of Hippie Commune for Shirking Work

-By Warner Todd Huston


In a new book chronicling the history of a 1970s commune, an author claims that self-avowed socialist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was kicked out of the place for shirking the work required of its residents.

According to author Kate Daloz, in 1971 when he was 30-years-old, Bernie Sanders came to the commune just as he was launching his career in the socialist Liberty Union Party.

But after staying for a period of time, the commune’s staff asked Sanders to leave because he spent all his time sitting around talking about politics and taking other residents away from the work they were required to do to keep the facility running.

In the forthcoming book We Are As Gods, Daloz presents a history of the Myrtle Hill Farm commune situated in picturesque Northeast Vermont.

According to the Freebeacon, the author says that Sanders went to the commune for research purposes. Apparently he was writing an article on natural childbirth for the Liberty Party Union’s magazine, “Movement.”

But according to author’s interviews, Sanders was a disruptive influence among the hippies and yippies living there.

Daloz found one resident named Craig who told her he “resented feeling like he had to pull others out of Bernie’s orbit if any work was going to get accomplished that day.”
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Flashback: Bernie Sanders Kicked Out of Hippie Commune for Shirking Work”


Today is the Anniversary of When Republicans Outlawed the Democrat Run KKK Terror Group

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is indisputable that the Republican Party is really the party of civil rights, not the Democrats. And today we have one more example of that truism with the 145th anniversary of the Republican Party’s essential outlawing of the Ku Klux Klan, the Democrat Party’s domestic terror group.

The actions against the Klan stemmed from an outrageous massacre of nearly 300 blacks perpetrated by white, Democrat Klan members in Louisiana in 1868.

On September 28, 1868 — three years after the Confederate south lost the civil war — a mob of marauding whites rampaged through Opelousas, Louisiana and massacred nearly 300 blacks who were Republican voters.

The outrage began when white, Democrat KKK members attacked the white owner of a Republican-leaning newspaper. The newspaper editor, a former school teacher for black students, was defended by several black friends during the attack and this action enraged the mob further sending them on a day-long spree of murder and mayhem.

The attack was so outrageous that the Republican Party acted to essentially ban the KKK. By April 20, 1871, the GOP passed a law banning the oppression perpetrated by the KKK when President Ulysses Grant and Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, also known as the third Enforcement Act. The law established penalties against anyone who tried to deprive any other citizen the benefit of equal protection under the laws of the United States. The law also gave the president the power to use the military to ensure that the rights of blacks were upheld.

This interest in civil rights carried all the way to the 1964 Civil Rights bill that was passed with the overwhelming support of Republicans.
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Today is the Anniversary of When Republicans Outlawed the Democrat Run KKK Terror Group”


Obama’s Promise to Destroy the Coal Industry Has Been Kept

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in 2008 Barack Obama was given little notice when he told the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle that if he became president he’d work to destroy the coal industry, both for miners and power providers. Now, as his presidency comes to an end we see he has kept that promise.

This month, despite that coal is still one of the world’s leading sources of energy, America’s biggest coal company, Peabody Energy, filed for bankruptcy. Peabody joins a growing list of bankruptcies of other American coal concerns including Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, and Patriot Coal.

Granted the industry had problems before Obama came along, but those problems became but a small part of the insurmountable obstacles put in their way by Obama’s policy to “bankrupt” the coal industry.

And before you think we here at Publius Forum are just being hyperbolic, no, “bankrupt” is exactly the term Obama used in his interview in 2008.

Here it is in Obama’s own voice
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Obama’s Promise to Destroy the Coal Industry Has Been Kept”


Let’s Clear Something Up About a ‘Contested’ GOP Convention, Voters DON’T Count and NEVER DID!

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a lot of valid angst about who will become the nominee for both the Republican and the Democrat Parties this year. We are in a day when the voters are clearly pulling in a multitude of ways and not giving any candidate an overwhelming nod. But there is also a lot of BS about how “the will of the voters” is being thwarted by the party system and much of this is misinformed.

I am not saying that none of this should make you mad. Just get the facts before you get mad. Don’t shy from getting mad, just be informed while you do it!

Let’s just get one fact out of the way at the outset: your vote in a primary is not and never was the only or even the final say on who the party picks for its nominee. The will of the voter does matter in a general election where the nation picks the president, but not as much in a primary when the parties are picking who they will offer up as a candidate for the forthcoming general election. The fact is, primaries are not “the election.”

It is the party that picks the nominee, not the voter. Yes, the votes in the primary are a key guide for the party and yes, if the vote is overwhelming for a particular candidate both parties generally chose that candidate. But, the fact is the parties — any party — can pick who ever the heck they want quite regardless of the vote totals.

After all, that is what a party is for, to control its destiny and policies.
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Let’s Clear Something Up About a ‘Contested’ GOP Convention, Voters DON’T Count and NEVER DID!”


This Sci-Fi Board Proves How the Internet Makes You Stoopid

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Internet can make you stupid and an exchange I had on a science fiction/comic book board is yet more proof of that.

The subject at hand was the effect mutants would have on humanity. I contended that people with mutant powers would end up becoming an oppressive force because their superior abilities would give them unstoppable powers against “normal” people who have no such abilities.

Even if they started out as a minority they’d eventually fight back and their enhanced abilities would not only allow them to win but they would then go on become a major threat to non-powered humans. This, I said, is human nature. Humans with power — even the figurative power of the majority-controlled political establishment that we’ve seen in history — always worked to oppress minorities to some extent and often to the worst extent possible. From royalty, to religious tyrannies, to communism, they all either used the power of the majority, the raw power of might, or a combination of both to oppress the undesirables.

I then used this example to illustrate my point:
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This Sci-Fi Board Proves How the Internet Makes You Stoopid”


Governor Nathan Deal’s Dumbest Claim to Quash Religious Freedom

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Monday Georgia Governor Nathan Deal vetoed a religious liberty bill that would stop state authorities from forcing Christians to participate in gay marriages, but one of the “reasons” Deal said prevented him from signing the bill is fraught with a pretzel logic he can’t possibly believe.

In the Governor’s view, HB 757 was “discriminatory.” Instead of protecting religious freedom, Deal claimed it only served to oppress gays. Worse, he said despite clear examples of such coercion in other states, since it’s never happened in Georgia then the law isn’t needed.

Of course, the law was written to head off the sort of state-sponsored coercion and curtailment of religious liberty seen in other states, not necessarily a law meant to correct what has already happened in the Peach State. The fact it has happened in a number of other states was plenty enough reason to try to prevent it from happening at all in Georgia.

In any case, Deal goes on to note how religious liberty is one of the first principles of the founding of the country. The founders, Deal said, “made it clear that those liberties [religious liberties] were given by God and not by man’s government. Therefore, it was unnecessary to enumerate in statute or constitution what those liberties included.”

He then went on to indulge some truly absurd pretzel logic that is so tortured even he can’t possible believe it…
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Governor Nathan Deal’s Dumbest Claim to Quash Religious Freedom”


The ‘Bechdel Test’ Proves How Feckless Liberalism and Radical Feminism Really Are

-By Warner Todd Huston

Conservatives like to scoff at the stuff and nonsense that is modern liberalism and its attack on traditional values and the so-called Bechdel Test is a perfect example of this foolishness of the liberal/feminist milieu. The very fact this “test” is even a thing shows how feckless and silly feminism and liberalism are.

For those blissfully unaware, the Bechdel Test is a way to ascertain if a TV show or movie pays enough fealty to feminism. The “test” measures how often two female characters talk to each other about men — whether it be a potential boy friend, a current boy friend, or a husband, or an object of desire or even a father figure. The purported goal of the test is to ascertain whether the characters are indulging the stereotype of women being fixated on pursuing men or otherwise showing they are somehow subservient to the male of the species.

The test may seem simple enough — are women in the film more worried about the men in the film or are they portrayed as more well rounded characters with a richer, deeper development? But in fact, it is meaningless box checking that ignores context and the actual story of the show.

But more significant is the fact that this whole “test” is based on a joke. No, really… an actual joke.
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The ‘Bechdel Test’ Proves How Feckless Liberalism and Radical Feminism Really Are”


Happy Easter 2016

As we take the day off to be with our families, we here at Publius Forum wish you and yours a very happy Easter Sunday.

6 “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Matthew 28: 6-10 NIV


Obama Takes Criticism for Doing Wave at Ballgame, Dancing While Brussels Burns

-By Warner Todd Huston

Even as the world is still reeling from the aftermath of the terror attacks in Brussels, Obama has been seen dancing and taking in baseball games like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

Hours after the attacks that killed over 30 people — including some Americans — President Obama gave the outrageous atack a mere 50 seconds of time in a speech otherwise filled with praise for communist Cuba and condemnation for the U.S.

Only an hour or so later, as Obama enjoyed the day’s event planned by his dictatorial communist hosts, the same President who only had 50 seconds of his time to discuss the attacks in Brussels was seen doing the wave at a Cuban baseball park.

Not long afterward the press were treated to scenes of the President doing the tango with a lovely Cuban woman who was not his wife.
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Obama Takes Criticism for Doing Wave at Ballgame, Dancing While Brussels Burns”