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Monday, February 17, 2020 How Lord of the Rings Brings Modern Day Orcs to England Posted by Daniel Greenfield 2 Comments Before The Hobbit movies could begin their trek through theaters, Warner Brothers and the Tolkien Estate had to settle their lawsuit over profits from the original movies for an undisclosed sum. Christopher Tolkien, the now deceased son of the author, stated that the settlement would “allow The Tolkien Trust to properly pursue its charitable objectives." The Tolkien Trust was founded by Tolkien’s children in the seventies to use some of the income from the estate of the celebrated philologist...

A newly minted district attorney for a major American city vows to establish an immigration unit. At first blush, that would seem entirely normal for a prosecutor’s office. Immigration laws require enforcement, and prosecutors are in the law-enforcement business. But no—the new San Francisco DA actually has in mind an immigration defense unit. He wants to assign a staff of prosecutors to protect undocumented aliens—those who are either illegal and thus deportable to begin with, or for whom a criminal conviction could result in loss of lawful status and thus eventual deportation. The unit’s enforcement target would be not the...

NASCAR’s most significant safety improvements have come in the wake of major crashes. Restrictor plates were added to cars’ engines at Talladega and Daytona after Bobby Allison’s scary crash. Head and neck restraints became mandatory in the wake of Dale Earnhardt’s fatal crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. Energy-absorbing SAFER barriers were added to inside walls and other unprotected barriers in the wake of violent wrecks that injured Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch less than two years apart.

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin. ...Tuesday's announcement marks the first time that waivers have applied to federal procurement rules. Previously they were used to waive environmental impact reviews. The Trump...

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has just given us notice he will be terminating the Visiting Forces Agreement that governs U.S. military personnel in the islands. His notification starts the clock running on a six-month deadline. If no new agreement is negotiated, the VFA is dissolved. What triggered the decision? Duterte was offended that one of his political allies who led his anti-drug campaign in the islands, which involves extrajudicial killings of drug dealers, had been denied a U.S. visa. Yet, Duterte has never been an enthusiast of the U.S. presence. In 2016, he told his Chinese hosts in Beijing: "I...

NeverTrumpers: the single dumbest special interest group on the planet. – In an election year characterized by mind-numbing stupidity, some people still manage to stand out. Some guy named Neal Simon, writing at the NeverTrumper website called “The Bulwark,” published a piece on Monday that will go down in infamy as the single most profoundly stupid opinion piece of the 2020 election season. The headline of the piece is so desperately stupid that one doesn’t even really need to get into the guts of the thing. But here at the Campaign Update, we like to get into the guts of...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are running neck-and-neck for the top spot in Virginia’s upcoming Democratic presidential primary, according to a Monmouth University survey released early Tuesday. The poll shows Bloomberg and Sanders tied in the Old Dominion at 22 percent, followed by former Vice President Joe Biden at 18 percent. Only one other candidate, former South Bend, Ind,. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, registered double-digit support in the commonwealth at 11 percent

Here's a tune that created a little stir for the Country Gentlemen and for Rebel Records: Bringing Mary Home (1965). I was a senior in High School when this came out.

The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy Tuesday in what it said was an effort to safeguard compensation payouts for sexual abuse victims. The organization has been accused of covering up generations of abuse inflicted on thousands of its young members and failing to do enough to root out pedophiles using the youth movement to prey on minors over its 110-year history.

WESTBY, Wisconsin -- Spend any time with people who supported presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016 and you quickly find out that the reasons they voted for Trump had very little to do with him. It is likely one of the most misunderstood threads among this new conservative populist coalition. To get the real reasons for their support for Trump, you have to be where they are, have no preconceived ideas about who they are and have no prejudice for what you think their motivations are. Tom Schaub, Ralph Petersheim, Donna Leum, Kris Amundson and Ben Klinkner are all sitting...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday qualified for this week’s Democratic presidential debate in Nevada, putting him on the same stage as his rivals for the first tie in the race for the party’s nomination. The debate on Wednesday will be the ninth in the contest for who will challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election. A late entry to the race, Bloomberg, 78, has risen in public opinion polls as he pours money from his estimated $60 billion personal fortune into a national campaign, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on...

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Let me start by saying I have no idea what anyone would find appealing about former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Then again, I’m not a left-wing Democrat desperate to beat Donald Trump, so maybe in that state of panic a dwarfish, socially distant, robotic, aloof, monotone billionaire seems like a good choice – any port in a storm, after all. And that seems to be the appeal – the billionaire part, I mean. Short of someone who can cover the cost of a presidential campaign with the change in the couch cushions sounds appealing to voters who’ve been...

Today’s CG from The Arkansas Gazette should be easy. Don’t let the big words intimidate you. Under 4 minutes is good, under 3 is excellent, and under 2 amazing… PWZHRIZYOYKYJYWZ QPVGYJVJW JR JUW HWPZRI SUR FVI ZURCKLWP JUWN.---JRN ZJRHHVPL You can find this little fun word game, to combat early dementia and senility in us baby boomers, in several daily publications. The way it works is a letter stands for another letter. For example: AXYDLBAAXR is LONGFELLOW (does not apply to today's cryptogram). Beware, the game is very addictive. If this is your first time, don't be intimidated. PLEASE DO...

A surrogate for Joe Biden‘s presidential campaign was, in her words in a group chat, “forced to resign” on Monday from Pennsylvania Young Democrats after promoting a doctored video of fellow 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) and for allegedly sharing anti-Semitic tweets about him and his online supporters. Lindy Li previously served as the treasurer for the Pennsylvania Young Democrats, a position she has since admittedly resigned. **SNIP** Li later confirmed that she resigned in a Twitter post–but disputed the circumstances surrounding her departure. “Lindy’s doctored video, which was edited to appear that Sanders was praising Communist dictators, has...

Plymouth Rock and other landmarks were found vandalized Monday in a disturbing discovery as the city of Plymouth, Mass., gears up to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the pilgrims' arrival to the new world on the Mayflower.

John Dennis, the chairman of the San Francisco Republican Party challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for her congressional seat, joined "The Ingraham Angle" Monday to talk about a confrontation with a liberal protester who he alleged was an "Antifa bully." Dennis said he was working with the San Francisco Police Department and the man has been identified. **SNIP** Dennis, who released the video earlier this month, was taking part in a clean-up event in San Francisco where the confrontation took place. "Why are you angry, man? You probably disagree with me but I disagree with you," Dennis said, approaching...

DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO-TV) -- The Iowa Democratic Party is working to recanvass more than 100 caucus precincts at the request of two presidential campaigns. That recanvass process began at 9 a.m. on Sunday. It includes 143 precincts in Iowa and around the world. “Specifically, what we are going to do is look at the evidence before us. A lot of that is going to related to the caucus math worksheets, the delegate summary sheets, for example. Those are kind of hard evidence pieces that we will look at,” said Iowa Democratic Party Rules Chair Melissa Peterson. Last week, the...

The Federal Judges Association will hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss concerns members have over President Trump and top Justice Department officials intervening in the case of longtime Trump friend and adviser Roger Stone. The association has more than 1,000 members, and says it supports a "fair, impartial, and independent judiciary." The group's president, U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe, told USA Today that members decided they "could not wait" until the organization's spring conference to address the matter. "There are plenty of issues that we are concerned about," added Rufe, a George W. Bush appointee. "We'll talk all...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Yes We (Still) Can and cohost of Pod Save America, a sharp political playbook for how Democrats can take on Trump, McConnell, Fox News, and the rest of the right-wing circus dominating American politics. There is nothing more important than beating Donald Trump in 2020, but defeating Trump is just the start of this timely book. Un-Trumping America offers readers three critical insights: first, Trump is not an aberration, but rather the logical extension of the modern Republican Party; second, how Democrats can defeat Trump in 2020; and third, preventing...