Christianity And The GOP Are Both On Trial In Iowa.

Terry Branstad, the mustachioed former Republican governor of Iowa and present U.S. ambassador to China, is now on trial in state court back in the Hawkeye State. Branstad, you see, had the temerity to request the resignation, in 2011, of a leftist mandarin named Chris Godfrey, who served as commissioner of the Iowa Division of Workers' Compensation. Godfrey was, reliable sources tell me, unanimously despised by the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (Iowa's closest equivalent to a statewide chamber of commerce) due to his deeply held hostility to business interests. After Godfrey — who had been both initially appointed and reappointed by Democratic governors — refused to resign upon Branstad's request, Branstad slashed his pay by 35%. All standard fare for a newly elected Republican governor looking to re-shape the direction of his state's anti-business governance, right? Well. As it turns out, Chris Godfrey is an open homosexual. So Godfrey now claims, in a lawsuit that went to trial in state court in Iowa last week, that his sexual orientation is the reason that Branstad "retaliated" against him. Godfrey offers zero direct evidence that anti-homosexual animus had anything whatsoever to do with the fact that a newly elected Republican governor of Iowa, upon taking office, sought to rework his administration to cleanse it of anti-business bureaucrats who were holdovers of previous Democratic administrations. Even more interesting, Roxanne Conlin, who is Godfrey's attorney, seems to have a personal vendetta of sorts against Branstad — she ran against him in a decades-old gubernatorial race, as a Democrat, and lost. And yet the facts actually get even more bizarre. The trial court judge assigned to the case made some utterly insane bizarre recent rulings as to what types of purely circumstantial evidence to allow at trial. You see, the trial judge here seems hell-bent on ensuring Godfrey has every possible means available to "prove" anti-homosexual retaliatory animus on the part of Branstad, his chief of staff, and his legal advisor. Here is how a local Iowa blogger summarizes the evidentiary proceedings thus far (I have also directly reviewed Branstad's petition for certiorari to the Iowa Supreme Court, for corroboration): The trial started last week with District Court Judge Brad McCall, a Culver appointee and former plaintiff’s attorney, presiding. McCall, who is a district court judge in Jasper County (Judicial District 5A), was assigned the trail despite its location in Polk County (Judicial District 5C). Branstad’s attorneys, Katie Graham and David Bower, petitioned the Iowa Supreme Court to place a stay on the trial until the resolution of a dispute over evidence McCall allowed. According to the petition, McCall ruled that the following “circumstantial evidence” is admissible at trial: Evidence of candidate/Governor Branstad’s public policy positions on Varnum v. Brien, same-sex marriage, and the constitutional amendment process in Iowa; Evidence of Governor Branstad, Boeyink, and Findley’s affiliation with the "anti-gay" Republican Party of Iowa;

>>6745087

The private, religious beliefs of individual members of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI") regarding whether homosexuality is sinful; and Opinion testimony that the Republican Party of Iowa is "anti-gay" from elected officials who had no involvement in Governor Branstad’s decisions.Let's translate this into non-legalese. The trial court is permitting evidence to be entered with respect to Branstad's personal thoughts on Varnum v. Brien, the outrageously activist Iowa Supreme Court decision wherein the Court held the state's traditional marriage definition to be incompatible with the Iowa Constitution, as well as his personal policy views on what the state's definition of marriage ought to be. The trial court is furthermore permitting evidence with respect to a mere affiliation with the Republican Party of Iowa allegedly being "anti-gay" due to the fact that the state's GOP affirms the conjugal, one-man/one-woman definition of marriage to which disparate religions, ethnicities, and cultures from all around the globe had all adhered for millennia, in uninterrupted and unquestioned fashion, prior to the revisionist fad to redefine marriage as an institution oriented toward adult romance and not toward the rearing of children. Even worse, the trial court is permitting evidence with respect to whether the (presumptively Christian) individual members of the Iowa Association of Business at issue have the audacity to actually believe what the Bible says about homosexual conduct! In a word, Christianity is on trial here in Iowa. Indeed, the very notion of whether it is "anti-gay" to believe in the once-universal conjugal definition of marriage is also on trial. This ought to be deeply, deeply harrowing for anyone who supports religious liberty. "[Judge] McCall’s rulings have put Iowa's freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association at risk," concluded the local Iowa blogger, Shane Vander Hart. "By not stopping it, the Iowa Supreme Court just gave its tacit approval." The Iowa judiciary, in direct opposition to the Midwestern Christian sensibilities of the Iowa people, is disproportionately leftist. Nonetheless, God-willing, the judiciary will come to its senses and exculpate Branstad and his former legal advisor and chief of staff. But the fact that this case is even being tried — and that this outrageous circumstantial "evidence" is even being admitted into court — ought to be deeply depressing for patriotic Americans of all political and religious stripes.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/48399/hammer-christianity-and-gop-are-both-trial-iowa-josh-hammer

NOAA upgrades the U.S. global weather forecast model

The GFS upgrade underwent rigorous testing led by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center and NCEP Central Operations that included more than 100 scientists, modelers, programmers and technicians from around the country. With real-time evaluations for a year alongside the previous version of the GFS, NOAA carefully documented the strengths of each. When tested against historic weather dating back an additional three years, the upgraded FV3-based GFS performed better across a wide range of weather phenomena.

The scientific and performance evaluation shows that the upgraded FV3-based GFS provides results equal to or better than the current global model in many measures. This upgrade establishes the foundation to further advancements in the future as we improve observation quality control, data assimilation, and the model physics.

“​We are excited about the advancements enabled by the new GFS dynamical core and its prospects for the future,” said Louis W. Uccellini, Ph.D., director, NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Switching out the dynamical core will have significant impact on our ability to make more accurate 1-2 day forecasts and increase the level of accuracy for our 3-7 day forecasts. However, our job doesn't end there — we also have to improve the physics as well as the data assimilation system used to ingest data and initialize the model.”

Uccellini explained that NOAA’s work with the National Center for Atmospheric Research to build a common infrastructure between the operational and research communities will help advance the FV3-based GFS beyond changing the core. “This new dynamical core and our work with NCAR will accelerate the transition of research advances into operations to produce even more accurate forecasts in the future,” added Uccellini.

Looks somewhat important.

https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-upgrades-us-global-weather-forecast-model

Update 7: Ahead of comments to the UN Security Council (which will presumably block any action, with China and Russia backing Iran), unnamed officials are sharing with reporters some of what the US intends to say:

U.S. OFFICIALS ALLEGE IRANIAN ATTACK MEANT TO ESCALATE CONFLICT

OFFICIALS: ATTACK SHOWS IRAN UNINTERESTED IN DIALOGUE WITH U.S.

OFFICIALS: OPTIONS UNDER CONSIDERATION INCLUDE TANKER ESCORTS

Earlier, the Saudis presented a letter to the council claiming that the Iran-backed Houthis had obtained special weapons training and were responsible for Wednesday's attack on Abha airport.

Pompeo said earlier that the US was in possession of "intelligence" suggesting Iran is behind the attack…but he neglected to offer any poof.

• • *

Update 6: And there it is…

The Trump Administration has officially concluded that Iran is responsible for Thursday's attacks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday during a press briefing.

The secretary of state and longtime Iran hawk said Iran's "unprovoked" attacks are part of a campaign to escalate tension in the region and disrupt the flow of the international oil trade (if we can't sell our oil, nobody can, would appear to be the logic). He also said that Tehran rejected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's outreach for diplomacy.

Here's an abridged version of Pompeo's statement, courtesy of CNN:

"It is the assessment by the United States government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today," Pompeo told reporters at the US State Department.

"This assessment is based on intelligence, the weapons used, the level of expertise needed to execute the operation, recent similar Iranian attacks on shipping, and the fact that no proxy group operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication."

Pompeo followed up his remarks with a tweet:

It is the assessment of the U.S. government that Iran is responsible for today's attacks in the Gulf of Oman. These attacks are a threat to international peace and security, a blatant assault on the freedom of navigation, and an unacceptable escalation of tension by Iran. pic.twitter.com/cbLrWNU5S0

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) June 13, 2019

The US is planning to raise concerns about Iran at the UN Security Council, Pompeo said, which is planning to meet to discuss the attacks at 4 pm ET. The US has already presented evidence to the security council that Iran was behind the last round of tanker attacks. The UN has been somewhat more measured in its approach to the attacks. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced Thursday's incidents at a Security Council meeting, saying: "I strongly condemn any attack against civilian incidents," before adding that "facts must be established and responsibilities clarified."

He warned that the world can't afford "a major confrontation" in the Gulf, Al Jazeera.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-13/2-tankers-damaged-after-suspected-torpedo-attack-near-strait-hormuz-oil-soars

British Law Enforcement Hands Out Dull Knives To Abuse Victims To Prevent Violence

https://www.dailywire.com/news/48397/british-law-enforcement-hands-out-dull-knives-emily-zanottiBritish authorities are pioneering a "violence prevention" program that involves swapping out sharp knives for dull knives in order to prevent domestic violence and abuse-related stabbings.

Victims who have been threatened at knife-point will receive a special gift of "no point knives" to keep in their home from Nottinghamshire Police, who say the pilot anti-knife program is designed cut down on knife-related violence, according to the Independent.

>>6745179

I know right.

These people are stupid.

>>6745191

are you saying he is already in gitmo?

Which would be awesome if it has already taken place.

maybe it has taken place for them all.

>>6745220

They just are too prideful to say that they were wrong to save face.

They are willing to allow people to be murdered and raped to save face.

What else are they doing?

Could only imagine.