Eclipsing Sanity: Today's News for August 21st

The funniest thing about today's solar eclipse? People will be travelling for hours to go someplace to look at something that they cannot see. And then they will travel hours to return home, not having seen it.

I have a special present for those folks:

Back to the "Trump is a racist, ineffective, Russian spy, Nazi" news...

CNN:

Trump to ask Americans to trust him on Afghanistan

CNN's lede today is another Stephen Collinson anti-Trump screed. But at least there is a news story in here somewhere:

Donald Trump will ask Americans Monday to trust him on his new Afghanistan strategy, exercising a president's most somber duty, a decision on waging war, at a time when his own political standing is deeply compromised.

Trump will make his first prime-time broadcast to the nation as president at 9 p.m. ET to unveil his new plan, and a potential escalation of the nation's longest war, after a lengthy period of deliberations that carved deep splits within his administration.

There is an assumption in this lede editorial that could be wrong: What if Trump decides to pull us out of Afghanistan?

While that doesn't sound like Trump's normal tough guy persona, it does make sense. Why address the nation to escalate this already ongoing waste of our country's money as well as the wasted lives of our young men? Nobody would blink twice if he did that, because the war is popular on both sides of the political spectrum, mainly because most Americans are too busy watching "Game of Thrones" to be bothered with government wasting money (a favorite of the Left) and lives (a favorite of the Right). Trump could let his press secretary handle an escalation, and nobody would care.

On the other hand, if Trump pulled us out of Afghanistan, that will require some political explaining. However, the reasons for it are completely valid. We lose more by our involvement there than we gain. Between money, American lives, and even our diplomatic relations with countries bordering Afghanistan, there is no real upside. Historically, nobody has ever been able to tame Afghanistan, including the Brits and the Soviets.

One other TRUTH which gets ignored about Afghanistan: We went there to get Osama bin Laden after 9/11. Bin Laden was killed 6 years ago, so why are we still in Afghanistan?

Having said all that, it is possible, and maybe even probable, that Collinson is right.

Speaking of CNN...

Hot Air:

CNN’s Take On Antifa: Peace Through Violence (Update: CNN Scrubs Headline)

CNN published an article [Friday] based on interviews with members of Antifa. The headline notes, “Activists seek peace through violence.” That seems to suggest there’s a real problem with what Antifa is doing but the rest of the article comes across as sympathetic to the group, even to their violence...

You can read the Hot Air assessment above, and the CNN story here. But this obvious double standard by CNN, and even the Leftist MSM, is not unnoticed. If the Far Right is "evil" because of their long history of violence, what about the Far Left? Both Stalin and Mao were individually responsible for more deaths than Hitler.

But the Left's eternal effort to resurrect the communist movement ignores the flaws it has, both historically and even with its supporters today.

Speaking of Antifa...

The Daily Caller:

Antifa Protester Yvette Felarca Says Violence Against The Far-Right Is ‘Not A Crime’

Yvette Felarca, the Berkeley area school teacher and militant left-wing protester responsible for organizing the riot at the University of California, Berkeley in February 2017, claims that violence against the far-right is “not a crime.”

Felarca, who belongs to “By Any Means Necessary,” a far-left group, is currently facing assault charges after she was caught on video assaulting a white supremacist during a July 2016 rally in Sacramento, Cali.

The school teacher and her compatriots engaged in violent clashes against members of the far-right Traditional Worker’s Party, which had a permit to march in the city. The violence between the two groups resulted in a number of assaults and multiple stabbings. In July 2017, police charged Felarca with “assault by means of force likely to inflict great bodily injury, participating in a riot, and inciting a riot.”

As reported by Huffington Post on Wednesday during her arraignment, Felarca described her actions as a form of self-defense, and therefore “not a crime.”

“Standing up against fascism and the rise of Nazism and fascism in this country is not a crime,” she said. “We have the right to defend ourselves.”

Considering communism was far deadlier than fascism, are we allowed to commit acts of violence against them too? Felarca might not be so willing to concede that point.